PRESBYTERIANS TO CONSIDER FIRMER LINE AGAINST ABORTION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992                   TAG: 9202290165
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium
PRESBYTERIANS TO CONSIDER FIRMER LINE AGAINST ABORTION
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is considering a stiffened policy aimed at limiting abortions, describing the procedure as "an option of last resort."
In recommendations released last week, the majority of a church committee opposes a complete ban on abortion or denial of access to it. But it says regulations are justified.
Expressing alarm at the "shocking" extent of abortions, the committee majority asks for churchwide commitment "to reducing the overwhelming numbers of women who choose to abort."
Reports both of the 11-member majority and of a three-member minority, which would tightly restrict abortion, go before the denomination's national legislative assembly June 2-10 in Milwaukee.
The two reports, differing more in analysis than conclusions, run to about 30,000 words. They follow the trend of most major Protestant denominations, which have taken firmer stands against abortion in recent years.
The issue has fueled prolonged controversy in the 3 million-member denomination, which last year overwhelmingly repulsed a move to condone sex relations outside marriage.
After four years of exploring the abortion question with hearings and expert testimony around the country, the committee majority proposes a church stand declaring:
"The strong Christian presumption is that since all life is precious to God, we are to preserve and protect it. Abortion ought to be an option of last resort."
The majority Presbyterian report calls abortion "morally acceptable" in cases of "problem pregnancies" such as those resulting from rape, incest, danger to the mother's life or when the fetus is fatally deformed. No other cases are specified in that acceptable category.
However, the recommendations say the church ought to "be able to maintain within its fellow ship" those who "come to diverse conclusions and actions."
Abortion was termed unacceptable morally when "used casually or as a repeated method of contraception" or when used for gender selection or "solely to obtain fetal parts" for transplants.
While the majority report says the state is justified in regulating abortion under some circumstances, it opposes laws that would make it a crime to seek or perform abortions.
"There is diversity of opinion in the church as to whether or not abortion should be legal and on the extent to which the government should be permitted to regulate or prohibit abortions," the report says.
The report also said no law should deny access to abortion or prohibit public funding of necessary abortions for the poor. And it said no law should sanction any harassment of those seeking an abortion.
In its prologue, the majority said, "We have felt throughout our process the double challenge of both protecting life in the womb and protecting the dignity of women and their freedom to make responsible decisions."
This is a "continuing challenge for us and for the whole Christian community," says the majority of the committee, headed by the Rev. Howard L. Rice of San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Extensive steps are urged to help curb abortions, such as expanded adoption and day-care services, sex education and youth programs "as an alternative to the aimlessness of `cruising' or `hanging out.' "
The church opposes "irresponsible sexual activity at any age," the report says, but since some adolescents "are so much at risk of unintended pregnancy," special efforts must focus on them.
Church members must hold up "biblical standards of sexual morality and Christian family life" which stand "in such contrast to the lifestyles of our secular society," the majority report says.
The majority declines to specify the precise point at which life begins, but the minority report contends life begins at conception - when the female ovum is fertilized by a sperm.
Noting that prematurely born infants now can often be helped to survive, the minority says "it seems strange that such a baby is treated as a fully human being," but is not treated as human if aborted at a similar age.
The minority asks the church to declare abortion "a sin before God" except in cases of rape, incest, serious fetal deformity or threat to the mother's life.
This is generally the position that most Presbyterians took in a poll last year.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB