Overture 04-5. On Calling for the End of Abortion, and Inserting a Statement in the Book of Order Regarding Abortion—From the Presbytery of Upper Ohio Valley.

The Presbytery of Upper Ohio Valley, in the light of God’s revealed word in Scripture and in adherence to our own historical standards of the Reformation, overtures the 216th General Assembly (2004) to do the following:

1. Determine that the 214th and 215th General Assemblies (2002) and (2003) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) erred in supporting abortion, especially late-term, partial-birth abortion.

2. Determine that the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) errs in providing abortions—except in the case of pregnancies truly endangering the life of the mother. (Such abortions are regrettable but necessary to protect the life of the mother.)

3. Publicly confess and repent (turn from) our sin against: Almighty God—the Father of us all; Christ Jesus the Son—the Lover of all children born and unborn; the Holy Spirit—the Lord and Giver of life; the aborted babies; the women and men who are victims of abortion; and the healthcare professionals we have led into sin by our silence about and approval of abortion.

4. No longer condone, teach as acceptable, or underwrite, the practice of abortion on demand as a means of birth control, population control, or social aggrandizement.

5. Develop and implement positive, life affirming, ministries and educational resources to protect and provide for unborn children, unwed mothers, and families in crisis.

6. Develop and implement a new ministry of healing for those women who have undergone abortions.

7. Provide Christian education resources teaching the biblical grounds for courtship, marriage, and family life.

8. Petition our national government to put an end to the sin that abortion is and that we call the United States of America to fasting, prayer, and repentance for our sin of abortion. This petition and call shall be addressed to all branches of the Federal Government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, and to all the various state and commonwealth governments.

9. Direct the Stated Clerk to send the following proposed amendment to the presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes:

Shall the Book of Order be amended by adding the following text:

“The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) stands with the Lord God and His Messiah Jesus in affirming the life of each unborn child, protecting that child and the child’s family, and in providing for their nurture. With the exception of abortion in order to protect the life of the mother, we stand against the practice of abortion and do condemn it while praying for and ministering to the victims of abortion and those who provide abortions.”

Rationale

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished” (Mal. 3:6).

“In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of [God’s] purpose, [God] guaranteed it by an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:17-18).

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105).

“For the word of the Lord is upright, and all [God’s] work is done in faithfulness” (Ps. 33:4).

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8).

“Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ That word is the good news that was announced to you” (1 Pet. 1: 22-25).

“[Children] are indeed a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Ps. 127:3).

“You slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering to them. And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, flailing about in your blood (Ezek. 16:21-22).

“. . . But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ And he laid his hands on them and went on his way” (Matt. 19:14-15).

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (Matt. 18:5).

“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ ” (Matt. 25:40).

“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed” (Ps. 139:13-16).

“In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord’ ” (Luke 1:39-45).

“For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20).

“You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters” (1 Cor. 7:23).

“You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13).

“That all Church power, whether exercised by the body in general or in the way of representation by delegated authority, is only ministerial and declarative; that is to say, that the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and manners; that no Church governing body ought to pretend to make laws to bind the conscience in virtue of their own authority; and that all their decisions should be founded upon the revealed will of God. Now though it will easily be admitted that all synods and councils may err, through the frailty inseparable from humanity, yet there is much greater danger from the usurped claim of making laws than from the right of judging upon laws already made, and common to all who profess the gospel, although this right, as necessity requires in the present state, be lodged with fallible men” (Book of Order, G-1.0307).

“In its confessions, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) identifies with the affirmations of the Protestant Reformation. The focus of these affirmations is the rediscovery of God’s grace in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures. The Protestant watchwords—grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone—embody principles of understanding which continue to guide and motivate the people of God in the life of faith” (Book of Order, G-2.0400).