wfn.org | Assembly rejects separate medical plan for abortion foes

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

04-July-1996 
 
GA96090 
 
    Assembly rejects separate medical plan for abortion foes 
 
ALBUQUERQUE--With no opposition expressed, the General Assembly rejected 
two overtures July 3 that would have directed the Presbyterian Church's 
Board of Pensions to set up a separate major medical plan for church 
employers who oppose abortion. 
 
    Disapproval of the overtures -- from Shenango and Cincinnati 
presbyteries -- was recommended by the Assembly committee on Pensions and 
Benefits, but debate was expected on the Assembly floor after the proposals 
were hotly debated in the committee. 
 
    The Board of Pensions instituted a "capture of dues" program in 1992 to 
segregate the major medical dues of employing organizations that are 
conscientiously opposed to abortion.  The program was modified last year 
after consultation with pro-life groups and is now called "relief of 
conscience."  When the program was introduced in January of this year, the 
Board announced that it would review the effectiveness of the program, 
which currently includes 191 employing organizations, after two years. 
 
    Under the "relief of conscience" program the dues of anti-abortion 
employers are placed in a separate account out of which all claims by those 
employers are paid.  Every six months, if the claim fund is short, money is 
transferred from the Board's general fund.  If the claim fund shows a 
surplus, money is shifted to the "administrative expense" line of the 
Board's general fund.  Critics have argued that this shifting indirectly 
supports payment for abortions. 
 
    The Assembly asked the Board of Pensions to continue to monitor the 
"relief of conscience" program and make an interim progress report to next 
year's Assembly and to continue to explore other medical coverage options 
that may more fully satisfy abortion opponents. 
 
    In other abortion-related business from the committee, the Assembly 
rejected an overture from Prospect Hill Presbytery that would have declared 
"any abortion performed after five months of pregnancy, except to save the 
life of the mother, is sin." 
 
    By a vote of 27-7, the committee recommended disapproval of the 
overture.  A minority report was introduced on the floor with milder 
language than the overture -- it declared that such abortions "fall short 
of God's plan for humankind."  The minority report was rejected 320-192 and 
then the committee's recommendation was adopted 332-166. 
 
    The Assembly joyfully approved an "experience apportionment" of eight 
percent.  The apportionment, which was proposed by the Board of Pensions, 
means an eight percent increase in the pensions of retired members of the 
Board's pension plan and an eight percent increase in the pension credits 
of active plan members. 
 
    In the most moving moment of the committee's report, the Assembly 
requested several General Assembly agencies to straighten out a problem 
that has deprived three Cuban Presbyterian pastors of pensions. 
 
    The three pastors were supposedly enrolled in the Board's pension plan 
in the early 1960s, before the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba became 
autonomous in 1967.  A series of miscommunications resulted in the pastors 
exclusion from the pension plan.  Individuals from the Presbytery of Santa 
Fe have been researching the case and the Board of Pensions and the 
Worldwide Ministries Division in Louisville now agree that the three 
pastors are entitled to pensions under the Board's plan. 
 
Jerry Van Marter 

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