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Note #8395 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Bid to change abortion policy fails
GA04101
July 1, 2004

Bid to change abortion policy fails

Assembly orders pastoral letter on problem pregnancies, adoption

by Erin Cox-Holmes

RICHMOND, July 1 - The General Assembly voted Thursday to have PC(USA)
officials issue a pastoral letter on problem pregnancy calling attention to
existing "excellent" resources available to women dealing with such
pregnancies and asking congregations to help find adoptive families in the
faith community for children whose mothers cannot care for them.

The commissioners earlier voted by the slimmest of margins - 4 votes - not to
consider the majority report of the Assembly Health Issues Committee, but
instead to take up a minority report recommending the pastoral letter.

The majority measure would have changed the "Statement on Post-Viability and
Late-Term Abortion" that the Assembly approved in 2002 and revised the
following year to more strongly affirm the live delivery of babies that have
reached viability - the point at which they could live outside the mother's
womb - whenever possible.

After an impassioned debate and two close votes, Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase
told the commissioners, "We need to continue to hold each other tenderly,
since we are not of one mind."

Proponents of the substitute contended that the majority report preserved
late-term abortion as an option when necessary for the sake of the mother's
health, but eliminated fetal suffering, rape and incest as factors that might
warrant consideration of such procedures.

They also pointed out that, because of advances in medical technology, unborn
babies reach the point of viability sooner than in 2002, and are more often
able to survive even grave medical conditions.

The majority recommendation would also have urged Presbyterians to support
women in problem pregnancies and to affirm adoption as an alternative to
abortion.

As the committee had recommended, the Assembly voted down an overture that
would call upon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make emergency
contraception available over the counter.

Elder Margaret Moore, of Greater Atlanta Presbytery, told her fellow
commissioners: "We don't ask the bank to make hot fudge sundaes, and the bank
doesn't ask us to cash checks. ... The PC(USA) should make a deal with the
FDA: They shouldn't tell us how to worship our Lord, and we shouldn't tell
them how to practice medicine."

Moore said not enough is known about the medical effects of the drug. Others
argued that approving emergency contraception might also be seen as an
endorsement of promiscuity.

The Rev. Kim Nelson, of San Jose, CA, pointed out that the Health Issues
Committee was closely divided on the issue after heated debate. Even if
emergency contraception were to become available without prescription, he
said, it would still be "behind-the-counter" and require a pharmacist's
counsel. "This is not about terminating a pregnancy," he said, "but a
decision to support effective contraception."

Advocates pointed out that emergency contraception might prevent countless
unwanted pregnancies and thousands of abortions. Requiring a physician or
emergency room to prescribe it, they said, might make it unavailable to many
women without medical insurance.

The Assembly defeated, without debate, an overture that would have overturned
the denomination's current "pro-choice" stance on abortion and would have
added a condemnation of abortion to the Book of Order.

It also adopted a resolution on guidelines for fetal-tissue and stem-cell
research and an overture opposing any relaxation in government regulation of
emissions from smokestack industries and calling for a reduction in tailpipe
emissions.

This story and many others may have photos, media, video clips that can be
found at http://www.pcusa.org/ga216/.

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