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General Assembly 2004

Women's Right to Choice

Facing the dilemmas of birth defects, let's not accept over-simple answers

[6-21-04]

Yesterday's (6/20/04) New York Times carried a front page article on the ethical dilemmas facing prospective parents who discover birth defects, or the possibility of birth defects, early in pregnancy. Increased use of pre-natal testing to screen for such diseases as cystic fibrosis has brought about both the blessing of increased knowledge and the increased burden of choice for such families.

Every year our denomination wrestles with issues of reproductive choice and the ethics of abortion. This year will be no different, with several overtures again revisiting the ethical dilemmas connected with those few abortions that occur later in pregnancy, while one overture seeks to insert a statement in our Book of Order calling simply for an end to abortion, presumably by recriminalizing it.

Obviously, these are issues about which Presbyterians and other morally serious persons will never fully agree. The article in the Times demonstrates some of the many shades of grey involved in making complex decisions around this ethical dilemma.

Awareness of these complexities might also help to underscore the need for mutual respect for our differences of opinion.

Unfortunately, there are groups that continue to claim that our denomination "promotes any and all abortions" (Presbyterians for Renewal, ReNews, GA Briefing) and those who boast to the New York Times (May 22, 2004) of their intention to be present "in force," at GA, using the issue of abortion as a wedge to divide and conquer.

Looks like another interesting General Assembly.

Bruce Cameron, Co-moderator

Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options, a network of the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association

 

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BECOMING NEIGHBORS:
An Invitation
to Global Discipleship

A Witherspoon conference
on global mission and justice

September 16 - 19, 2007
Louisville, Kentucky

 

Check out our report from the Conference
on
Terror, Torture,
and Security

 

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