 General Assembly votes to retain incest, rape as allowable conditions for late-term abortion By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Friday, May 30, 2003
Commissioners, who earlier had approved a statement that substantially concurs with one approved by the 214th General Assembly last year that sanctioned late-term abortions and included incest and rape as allowable circumstances, recommended that commissioners disapprove an overture (03-21) from the Presbytery of Eastminster. The overture argued that "pregnancies that are the product of incest or rape produce healthy babies with much the same frequency as other pregnancies. In the case of incest, the baby may have a slightly increased incidence of developmental abnormalities. In the absence of a demonstrated fetal anomaly and the absence of maternal distress, late-term abortion (defined as occurring after the point of viability) constitutes a morally indefensible and unwarranted taking of life." The Committee on Health Issues, following a recommendation from the Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns, urged the defeat of the overture because, it said in its rationale: "Rape and incest are of such horrific nature, and create such complicated factors for women in the pregnancy process that the essential role of the church must be pastoral and supportive as women face questions of grave concern. In these cases, further mitigating factors beyond pregnancy require and demand that the church be more compassionate with women as they face extremely difficult decisions." Commissioners agreed with that rationale and rejected the overture 353-150, but not before a number spoke out for and against it. William David, a commissioner from the Presbytery of Stockton, said he felt removing those two categories from the denomination's policy would be "depersonalizing life in cases of incest and rape." Such an action, he said, "seems to devalue us because of origins. Is how life is conceived devalue the validity of that life?" he asked. "Does one act of violence justify another?" David said, adding that, "All life matters because it is precious to God. I hope we affirm that." Speaking in favor of keeping rape and incest in the current policy was Ben Owen, a Youth Advisory Delegate from the Presbytery of Southern New England, who said that, "In light of the decision we just made, I feel it wouldn't be right to limit the choice of a woman in such dire circumstances." "Where there is so much hardship," he said, "congregations and pastors and the church should be reaching out to the family in this situation, not telling them what they can or can't do, or if a woman has to make a choice between her church and her doctor." "Rape and incest do not have to destroy lives," said Elizabeth Forsythe, a Youth Advisory Delegate from the Presbytery of Eastminster which proposed the overture. "An unborn child is a creature of God," she said. "An unborn child belongs not to a government or the church - the child belongs to God. This is not about what is legal, but about the high moral standards Christ calls us to. I speak as the advocate of the child." Gretchen Gallentin, a commissioner from the Presbytery of Central Nebraska, urged the defeat of the overture, saying that she was thinking "about a child who might be 10 or 11 who is raped or the victim of incest." "These women did not choose to have a child," she said. "The act was extremely violent. It seems to me to be a terrible punishment to insist that they carry the baby to full term, punishment on top of an violent act." |
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