From Pro-Choice Clergy Archives - Page 4 of 5

Abortion brings a woman into “deeper communion” with God, says prochoicer

A Christian pro-choice activist said the following:

This is a picture of what abortion looks like at nine weeks — This is a picture of a foot left behind after an abortion at nine weeks

“More than anything else, being able to choose and being affirmed in that choice gives a woman peace. Knowing that God is with her in the abortion decision and that the church upholds her moral authority to make the decision brings a woman into deeper communion with the One from whom all life springs. It becomes a part of that list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God.”

Bunnie Riebel, Founding Director, Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, Southern California

Anne Eggebroten, ed Abortion: My Choice, God’s Grace (Pasadena, California: New Paradigm Books, 1994) X I I

The Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights is active in supporting legalized abortion. It is an organization made up of religious leaders and lay people who oppose pro-lifers trying to protect unborn babies.

Read quotes from members of clergy encouraging and defending abortion

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Pro-choice Pastor Roger Paynter on abortion and “God’s will”

Pro-choice Pastor Roger Paynter, in a sermon to his congregation:

“… Abortion is not the automatic breaking of God’s will… In general, we should say that God is against the ending of all life, but that in some tragic circumstances, he understands – even allows – and certainly forgives the choices we have to make.”

Robert M Baird and Stuart E Rosenbaum, editors The Ethics of Abortion, 3^rd edition (Amherst, New York: Prometheus books, 2001) 236

From the remains of a first trimester (10 weeks) abortion. Does this break God’s will?

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Reverend: giving women “right to abortion” is a “compassionate stand”

From a proabortion clergy member:

“Clearly, giving a woman the right to abortion is a compassionate stand, and anytime compassion rules over judgment, we see the kingdom of God.

I can’t get any of these Bible thumping, antiabortion people to show me any place at all scripture where Jesus ever says, “You made your bed, now lie in it. Too bad…”

I see Jesus as being outrageously gracious, outrageously forgiving. If Jesus were right here today, I think he would say, “I’m sad that anyone has to have an abortion. I’m sad that has to be a choice. But you’ve been created as human beings… You’re going to make mistakes. Yes, I do value life, I do value babies, but I don’t use babies for punishment.”

The Rev. Christine Gimbol

Quoted in Anna Bonavoglia The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak out about Abortion (New York: Random House, 1991)87

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Episcopalian professor justifies abortion

Joseph Fletcher, an Episcopalian professor of social ethics, said that abortion was justified. He used as his moral argument the example of a woman raped by an insane person:

“Even self-defense legalism would have allowed the girl to kill her attacker, no matter that he was innocent in the forum of conscience because of his madness. The embryo is no more innocent, no less an aggressor or unwelcome invader! Is not the most loving thing possible (the right thing) in this case the responsible decision to terminate the pregnancy?”

Kerry N Jacoby Souls, Bodies, Spirits: the Drive to Abolish Abortion since 1973 (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998) 3

i-am-pointing — Is this baby an aggressor in her mother’s womb? Does she deserve to be killed?

This is what a ten week old baby looks like after she is aborted. Is this justifiable?

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Abortion is “God’s Work” says Rev. David Selzer

“Bless this building and those who work here…who provide safe, legal, caring and loving reproductive services, including abortion…they are doing God’s work.”

Rev. David Selzer, Concerned Clergy for Choice – Text for a blessing for abortion clinics, Prayerfully Pro-Choice, p. 101

is this God’s work?

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Reverend: Being Born Is Not a Right

A cofounder of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, an organization that referred women to illegal abortionists before Roe versus Wade and which helped thousands of women get abortions said the following:

“In my religious tradition, birth was never seen as anything but a gift… To speak of being born as a right is to jar the sensibilities and strain the moral syntax of existence.”

The Rev. Howard Moody in Anna Bonavoglia The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak out about Abortion (New York: Random House, 1991) 192

Moody has also said that he believes abortion destroys a life, but is pro-choice anyway.

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Pro-Choice Nun Speaks

From a pro-choice nun:

“Every woman has a free will. God gave us free will… That’s what separates us from the beasts. Free will is guided by conscience, and conscience is formed not by dogma, what organized religions tell us, but by experience. A woman will answer to God for one thing: Has she followed her conscience in carrying out God’s will? It’s nobody’s right to tell her what her conscience said to her. That’s what men want to take from us… the right to follow our own conscience.”

Sister Margaret Ellen Traxler quoted in Anna Bonavoglia The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak out about Abortion (New York: Random House, 1991) 64

abort10w9 — 10 weeks. Should a woman be able to follow her conscience and do this?

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Pro-Choice Chaplain Defends Abortion

Pro-Choice chaplain George Patterson:

“Life is a gift from God. I believe that very strongly. But conception of the child is not a result of divine intervention. It is a human act between two people. We have to accept responsibility for that. And there may be times when responsibility involves terminating pregnancy… Life that is most vulnerable deserves our greatest protection. That applies not only to the life of the fetus but the life of the pregnant woman. I don’t think [religion] gives us any clear and specific guidance on how we shall not sin. And for that reason I think we have to respect the right of the individual conscience.”

Roger Rosenblatt. Life Itself: Abortion in the American Mind (New York: Random House, 1992) 168, 169 – 170

To see more pictures of aborted babies, go here.

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Pro-Choice Clergyman Claims That Women “Love” Their Aborted Babies

“Women don’t choose abortion lightly. But their concern for the lifelong welfare and nurture of children leads them to abort. They have such a strong sense of love and responsibility for their potential baby that they want it to be raised with loving concern and promising opportunities for a good life.”

Rev. Edgar Peara “Abortion ban brings bad memories” The Register Guard (Eugene, OR) March 10, 2006

aboort9w — abortion at nine weeks – is this “love” for the baby?

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Pro-Life and Pro-Love

Reverand Phillip A. Wogamen of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington D.C. said the following at a Planned Parenthood prayer break:

“Real love for children means having the number of children that one can care for responsibly and lovingly….Bringing every conceived child into existence is not “pro-life”: it is certainly not pro-love.”

Quoted in Gloria Feldt “Behind Every Choice is a Story” (Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2002) p 113

abort10w2 — 10-week-old aborted baby – is this “pro-love”?

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