In the words of PPL’s event speakers over the years…

Mother Teresa, 1988

Neither Christians nor non-Christians have the right to destroy life; it doesn’t matter what kind of child it is. It is a child of God created for greater things; to love and be loved. The gift of God…And if they don’t want the child, then they can give it to me. I want it.

The little unborn child in the womb of the mother is special to our Lord. For that little one God has died on the cross to redeem that child. And for us who know what that crucifixion means it should increase in us the desire and the determination to save that unborn child.

Richard Neuhaus, 1989

Let the church be the church…This needs to be said and said as clearly as possible, ‘to deny that another human being by virtue of not being sentient, viable…is not a brother or a sister for whom I am responsible…is heresy.’ ….Let it begin with the churches…If not with the churches, where else?

Terry Schlossberg, 1990

The Church languishes because it believes the world too much and the Sovereign Lord too little. Mainline Protestantism today is so caught up in a desire to be ‘relevant’ that it has been co-opted by the spirit of the age, and has added its approval to changing the standard to meet the circumstances where they are.

The Church’s policy exchanges the Word of God for individual conscience that must find its own truth for each new set of circumstances.

The division in our church over abortion and other moral issues is fundamentally a division…over the authority of Scripture.

Cardinal O-Connor, 1991

The most important ‘issue’ in religion and public life is the human person…Only a restoration of our belief in the sacredness of every human person will allow us to renew our families, to be serious and effective in addressing problems of poverty, racism, homelessness, drugs, abortion, and discrimination of every iind. The gospel of Christ demands nothing less of us.” (First Things, March 1990)

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, 1992

How anyone in 1992 can deny that life begins at fertilization is unimaginable to me as a physician. We do this every day [in vitro fertilization], and we know exactly when the life-clock starts.

Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier, 1993

Abortion denies the church’s earliest, central, most enduring confession: that Jesus Christ alone is Lord over all in heaven and on earth….The worst thing we could possibly do as we look to the future would be to give up the battle against abortion. For then there would be no one to say no to the killing, no one to tell that God wants so much for all of his children to live. Evil takes over when good people do nothing, and we shall not let that happen.

…So preach and teach and talk and live the Gospel, good Christian friends. For that message, that good news, is the answer, the final answer, to the slaughter of abortion.

Sue Cyre, 1994

…Life issues of abortion and euthanasia as well as sexual practice—which the Church has struggled with for many years, cannot be separated from the first table of the Law. How we act is directly related to what we believe about God.

Thomas A. Miller, M.D., 1995

The only medically and scientifically accurate and acceptable definition for when a human life begins is at conception….A common misunderstanding is that the zygote possesses only potential human life rather than actual human life. From a scientific standpoint, this assumption is invalid. Neither the egg nor the sperm is a human being. Only when the egg and sperm unite to form the zygote does a new human life begin…It is incomprehensible that our Church, which should love life and do everything in its power to preserve life, condones the intentional killing of unborn children by abortion and justifies that killing by suggesting that there is no agreement as to when a human life begins.

Charles Colson, 1996

Something far more than abortion is at stake. And to understand it you have to understand what is at the root of the division in our society today. It isn’t a division over “choice.” “Choice” is a morally neutral term. You can choose good or bad. The division is over the definitions of liberty. It’s over whether we really have an objective moral order we live by or whether we simply make up our own rules. At root, it’s about truth…

What is going on friends, brothers and sisters, is a clash of world views, how we view meaning and reality.

William Willimon, 1999

As Christians we believe that we have been charged by God to love and to care for every human life, especially the most vulnerable…[T]hose who are “non-productive,” “dependent,” and “needy” deserve our special attention because they are the ones who are most likely to be disposed of by this society. They live as truthful reminders of who we really are…

Thomas Torrance, 2000

...As Christians our regard for the unborn and born alike must surely be governed by our commitment to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Creator and Lord of every human being, who was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born to be the brother and Redeemer of humankind.

Jean Wright, M.D., 2002

Unborn infants have pain receptors on their face by 7 weeks of development, and over their entire body by the 20th week of gestation in the same or greater density than adults…The fibers and substances needed to feel pain are present; but the mechanisms needed to modulate and tone down the response to pain are poorly developed….If a pre-born child requires anesthesia for fetal surgery, then shouldn’t the logical extension be that children undergoing abortion also feel pain—and would have the same requirements for anesthesia?

Frederica Mathewes-Green, 2004

There is a tremendous sadness, loneliness in the cry, ‘A woman’s right to choose.’ No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg…The truth, which our pro-choice friends know too well, is this: abortion hurts…abortion is not liberation; it is a bizarre new form of oppression.

Living without abortion means restoring that sexual balance-of-power with respect for women’s need for commitment and security—in short, abstinence before and fidelity within marriage.

Terry Schlossberg, 2006

God creates us and the New Testament concludes, therefore that “You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” …Along with this purposeful caring for us comes the biblical teaching to care for each other….And what is it that God expects…to “preserve the life of ourselves and others…comforting and …protecting and defending the innocent.”

This…would be a great year for the PC(USA) to reclaim the truth on this matter of abortion…to begin offering hope and healing to the women whose lives have been shattered by abortion and by the guilt they live with. To offer the gospel of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to all men and women in the church’s distinctive calling.

David Swanson, 2010

God has purposed our lives...life has purpose from the very beginning. If we don't know when life begins shouldn't we protect it as far back as possible--from the very beginning? We are called to protect the lives of the unborn--those that cannot protect themselves.