The G.A. declined to impose any restrictions on the abortion coverage provided by the Board of Pensions’ medi-cal benefits plan. For the second year in a row, a presbytery sent up an overture asking specifically that partial birth abor-tion be excluded from the coverage. The overtures were an effort to bring the medi-cal benefits plan into compliance with the 1997 G.A. action expressing "grave moral concern" for that abortion procedure.

The G.A. added comment to its disapproval of the overture this year, noting the availability of the Board of Pensions’ "Relief of Conscience" provision. Commissioners who supported the exclusion of this especially abhorrent method of late term abortion argued that the "Relief of Conscience" provision is irrelevant to the request that our denomination stop funding this abortion procedure.

Responding to an overture from Donegal Presbytery, the G.A. ordered the preparation of resources to assist churches in ministry to those in our congregations suffering the effects of abortions. The original overture was amended to instruct Theology and Worship to converse with several groups, including PPL, in the preparation of the resources.

The action was to refer the amended overture to the Advocacy Committee on Women’s Concerns (ACWC) in consultation with the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) with comment:

The Office of Theology and Worship sent a request to this Assembly to delay implementation of an action from the last G.A. on a churchwide dialogue on pastoral issues at the end of life. This year’s Assembly denied the request for delay and directed the office to find the funding and begin to implement the action calling for dialogue.