The current General Assembly policy on abortion acknowledges the various viewpoints on abortion within the Church and says "the Presbyterian Church (USA) encourages an atmosphere of open debate and mutual respect for a variety of opinions concerning the issues related to problem pregnancies and abortion." The booklet promoted by the PC(USA) Washington Office is itself guilty of a politically-motivated attack. It hardly represents an effort toward "open debate and mutual respect."

The first term, "unborn life," is a centerpiece of the pro-life movement. The Washington Office will find that virtually every textbook on reproduction uses that term. It is impossible to enter into a discussion of abortion without using that term. It is not pejorative and it is accurate language for expressing what is in the womb of a pregnant woman. Usually the term is more specific in adding, "unborn human life."

Furthermore, while it is very true that those in the pro-life movement wish to call people's attention to the reality of the unborn child in the womb, precisely because those children are being killed each day in incredible numbers, we do not neglect the health care and other needs of women. The rapidly growing pregnancy care movement in the United States, offering free services to pregnant women and women who have had abortions or who are seeking help in raising a child as a single mother or are seeking help with a plan for adoption, is testimony to the heart of the pro-life movement for mothers and their babies. "Unborn life" is the raison d'etre of the pro-life movement.

The Washington Office is apparently charging its own General Assembly with political motivation. In 1997 the General Assembly adopted a statement which expressed a "word of counsel to the church and our culture that the procedure known as Intact dilation and extraction (commonly called partial birth' abortion) [parentheses are the Assembly's] of a baby who could live outside the womb is of grave moral concern and should be considered only if the mother's physical life is endangered by the pregnancy."

Both the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Episcopal Church have made statements opposing partial birth abortion. More than half the states have passed laws prohibiting partial birth abortions. This is much more than a "politically-motivated" effort. It is principally an effort to give moral guidance and to save lives.

This explanation is not an attempt to discount the heat of the debate over abortion in the public arena. But it should serve to remind Presbyterians that public attacks like this one by our denomination's Washington Office directed against persons who hold pro-life convictions does nothing to promote open debate and mutual respect within our denomination on an issue of extreme importance to the church. Further, it is an example of an office which is under the authority of the General Assembly defying the direct instruction of the General Assembly to seek an atmosphere of mutual respect and to express the denomination's moral concern about a particular abortion procedure.