Abortion is a perennial issue sure to generate impassioned debate at this year’s 216th General Assembly. Three presbyteries (district governing bodies) have submitted abortion-related resolutions to this year’s Assembly.

The topic has been on the Assembly agenda almost every year since 1983, when that year’s Assembly established the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s first basic policy on abortion, which supported a woman’s right to choose with virtually no reservations.

Over the years, pro-life Presbyterians have persuaded Assemblies to modify the church’s policy on several occasions. While the policy remains pro-choice, the church opposes abortion as a means of birth control and gender selection; affirms adoption as a preferable alternative in cases of unwanted children; and says the “intact dilation and extraction” procedure — commonly known as “partial-birth abortion” — is a “matter of grave moral concern.”

The policy holds that abortion should be the last resort in problem pregnancies. The denomination’s Board of Pensions has established a “relief of conscience” program, in which the Major Medical Plan dues paid by congregations conscientiously opposed to abortion are set apart so that they cannot be used to pay for abortions.

Last year’s 215th Assembly in Denver, CO, affirmed language stipulating four circumstances under which post-viability abortion can be an acceptable moral choice: “when necessary to save the life of the woman, to preserve the woman’s health in circumstances of a serious risk … to avoid fetal suffering as a result of untreatable life-threatening medical anomalies, and in cases of incest or rape.” The 2003 Assembly also added a new expression of concern for the unborn.

Beaver-Butler Presbytery in Pennsylvania and the Presbytery of Charlotte in North Carolina have submitted overtures calling on PC(USA) members to affirm the protection of urborn babies well enough developed to survive outside the womb. The Presbytery of Upper Ohio Valley is urging commissioners to declare that the 2002 and 2003 Assemblies “erred in supporting abortion, especially late term partial-birth abortion,” and that the Board of Pensions “errs in providing abortions” except in pregnancies that clearly endanger the life of the mother. It also asks that a pro-life position on abortion be codified in the church’s constitution.

Matters related to abortion will be considered in Assembly Committee 11 — Health Issues.