Rev. Debra McKnight, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Omaha:
“God is a life-giving presence, which means we can and should care for each other with compassion. Faith isn’t just an hour on Sunday morning, but in your everyday life. So, we hope people are thinking about what is life-giving …
I believe that being absolutely pro-birth isn’t always the most life-giving choice. The church needs to be there to support people, not moralize about those choices…we acknowledge that an absolute ban [on abortion] is not necessarily the most life-affirming stance…because it doesn’t take into account the circumstances of the woman and her family.
People of faith can take courage from the prophets of ancient stories and speak up. They can let the world and our leaders know that reproductive rights are sacred and women’s health means healthy families, workplaces and communities.”
Pro-Choice activist Virginia Ramey Mollenkott writes:
“Anti-abortionists claim that fetal personhood is a biological fact rather than a theological perspective.
However, the fetus is human only in the sense that any part of a human body is human: Every cell carries the full genetic code (a severed hand is genetically human, as well, but we do not call it a person)….six hundred million sperm are “aborted” in every masturbation or wet dream.”
Virginia Ramey Mollenkott “Respecting the Moral Agency of Women.” Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights pamphlet
Below: picture of preborn baby at 10 weeks, still in the first trimester. Is he the same as a severed hand?
Catholics for Choice (then called Catholics for Free Choice) has the following liturgy to celebrate abortion:
“Praised be you, Mother and Father God, that you have given your people the power of choice. We are saddened that the life circumstances of (aborting woman’s name) are such that she has had to choose to terminate her pregnancy. We affirm her and support her in her decision.”
The litergents then”sprinkle flower petals, or share dried flowers.”
CFFC brochure entitled “You Are Not Alone” quoted in Mary Meehan. “How Can They Be Called Catholic?” National Catholic Register, November 19, 1989, page 5.
A clergyman spoke out against a law restricting abortion by saying:
“Our moral imperative is to commit ourselves to the care of the born.… We should create laws that promote the common good and not narrow, extreme political and religious ideologies.”
Rev. Patrick Hurley, president of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado and retired pastor Presbyterian Church, Pueblo
Rev. Owens, who is pro-choice, gives his views about abortion:
“There is a spiritual force within a woman when she’s pregnant and people of great spiritual sensitivity have to deal with the reality of that potential life, and a lot of people don’t think there is this kind of subtlety, and when they do, I’m very supportive of them.
Yes, there’s a spiritual issue involved. I take the idea of ending the life of the fetus very, very gravely.
I’m troubled by that, but this doesn’t in any way diminish my conviction that a woman has the right to do that, but I become distressed when people regard pregnancy lightly and ignore the spiritual significance of a pregnancy…
I remember giving a talk, that I thought that one of my roles was to be an advocate for the fetus, and for the fetus’s right not to be born…
In this sense, that I think if I had my druthers I would probably pursue a course which would, as I do advocate verbally, the need for licensing pregnancies, which seems to contradict what I’ve just said, but I don’t think it really does.”
Kristin Luker “Abortion and the Meaning of Life” in Sidney Callahan and Daniel Callahan, eds. Abortion: Understanding Differences (London: Plenum Press, 1984) 41, 43
Here is a letter a group of clergy wrote in support of abortion, along with the reality of what they support.
“Pastoral Letter About Your Abortion Decision” Planned Parenthood’s RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE [distributed by PP.]
“We believe, as religious leaders in our faith communities, that abortion is a morally permissible choice for a woman facing a problem pregnancy. … Abortion is chosen for medical, physical, emotional, economic and relational reasons. It is a choice made by women, often in consultation with partners, families and friends. We support you and your ability to choose what is best for you.
11 weeks
We believe, as religious leaders in our faith communities, that ultimately no one can make the choice for or against abortion except the woman herself. No one knows your life as you do. We trust that any decision you make will be made after serious thought and contemplation of the alternatives. You will make the best decision you can. …. If you have thoughtfully decided to have an abortion then you should be at peace with your decision…
15 weeks
[T]he decision to have an abortion will not threaten your relationship with God. …We believe that God is compassionate and does not expect any of us to lead perfect lives. … God is not angry with you and will not punish you for any choice you have or might make. In fact, we believe that God loves you and will be with you helping you find strength and understanding and comfort for living through days of doubt and distress.…
8 weeks
You may wonder from time to time if you made the right choice. You may be sorrowful, doubtful or depressed because of your choice. These are natural emotions. Experiencing this does not mean your decision was a bad one. It may mean that you are a sensitive person. …. If you think that it would be helpful for you to talk to a minister, Planned Parenthood keeps a list of clergy who would be supportive of you and the decision you have made. They will see you for no charge and not pressure you to become part of their congregations. We want you to have a peaceful road ahead.
God Bless you!”
20 weeks
COMMITTEE
Reverend Debbie Pitney, Reverend Steve Carlson, Reverend Ken Henry, Reverend Ben Dake, Reverend Melanie Oommen, Reverend Gregory Flint, Reverend Danna Drum Hastings, Reverend Dan Bryant, Reverend Zane Wilson, Reverend Jonathan Weldon, Reverend Jan Fairchild, Reverend Bruce Cameron, and Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankins.
Rosemary Radford Ruether from Woman-Church provides a new prayer for a woman who has had an abortion:
The article in First Things says:
“Woman-Church, provides the “new words, new prayers, new symbols” that will free women from patriarchy and allow them “to live the new humanity now.” Her community prayer for the rite of healing from an abortion.”
This is the prayer:
“O great Mother and Father, power of all life and new life, we are sorrowful this day . . . we are also angry. . . . We are surrounded by a world in which vast numbers of people go to bed hungry and where many children come into the world unwanted and without the most minimal opportunities for love and development. We don’t want to create life that way. We want to create life that is chosen, wanted, and can be sustained and nourished. Our sister has made her hard choice. . . . We affirm and uphold her in her ongoing life, as she gathers her life together and centers her energies on how she is going to continue to sustain her own life and the lives around her which it nourishes.”
Camille S. Williams “Abortion and the Actualized Self” First Things November 1991
The Reverend Carlton Veazey, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and founded its Black Church Initiative said:
“I was raised by my father, who was also a minister, to believe in the moral agency of individuals, that they had a right to make moral choices. Choice is a God-given right. To have a child can be a sacred choice. By the same token, to not have a child can be a sacred choice.
The woman may not be prepared to bring a new life into the world. She may not be able to provide for a child. She may decide, `My life is not where it should be.”
CONNIE SCHULTZ “Abortion Can Be a Sacred Choice” Newhouse News Feb. 3, 2006
Preborn baby at nine weeks, before and after an abortion. This is what Reverend Carlton Veazey calls a “sacred choice”
From pro-abortion Methodist minister John M Swomley:
“Abortions after implantation are of two kinds: one is medically induced by pill, and the other surgically induced, in each case with the request or consent of the woman. Most of us do not believe consensual medical and surgical action is violence.”
John M Swomley Compulsory Pregnancy: The War against American Women (Amherst, New York: Humanist Press, 1999) 81
“Moreover, the Vatican idea that human life begins with conception is an attempt to override the biblical idea that human life begins with breathing. The Hebrew word that describes a human being is naphesh– the breathing one. It occurs 775 times in the Hebrew Bible. It is obvious that in Hebrew thought a fetus is not a living human being because it does not breathe on its own.
Pro-life groups mistakenly apply one of the 10 Commandments – “you shall not kill” – to a fetus… It is desperation that makes “pro-lifers” apply the commandment to an embryo or fetus because there is no explicit reference in the entire Bible that is antiabortion or pro-life with respect to a fetus.”
John M Swomley, ordained United Methodist minister
John M Swomley Compulsory Pregnancy: the War against American Women (Amherst, New York: Humanist Press, 1999) 85 – 86
According to Swomley, this peborn baby is not alive because although he has been breathing amniotic fluid since the 11th week, he is not breathing air.
