RICHMOND, July 1 - The General Assembly voted Thursday to have PC(USA) officials issue a pastoral letter on problem pregnancy calling attention to existing "excellent" resources available to women dealing with such pregnancies and asking congregations to help find adoptive families in the faith community for children whose mothers cannot care for them.

The commissioners earlier voted by the slimmest of margins - 4 votes - not to consider the majority report of the Assembly Health Issues Committee, but instead to take up a minority report recommending the pastoral letter.

The majority measure would have changed the "Statement on Post-Viability and Late-Term Abortion" that the Assembly approved in 2002 and revised the following year to more strongly affirm the live delivery of babies that have reached viability - the point at which they could live outside the mother's womb - whenever possible.

After an impassioned debate and two close votes, Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase told the commissioners, "We need to continue to hold each other tenderly, since we are not of one mind."

Proponents of the substitute contended that the majority report preserved late-term abortion as an option when necessary for the sake of the mother's health, but eliminated fetal suffering, rape and incest as factors that might warrant consideration of such procedures.

They also pointed out that, because of advances in medical technology, unborn babies reach the point of viability sooner than in 2002, and are more often able to survive even grave medical conditions.

The majority recommendation would also have urged Presbyterians to support women in problem pregnancies and to affirm adoption as an alternative to abortion.

As the committee had recommended, the Assembly voted down an overture that would call upon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make emergency contraception available over the counter.

Elder Margaret Moore, of Greater Atlanta Presbytery, told her fellow commissioners: "We don't ask the bank to make hot fudge sundaes, and the bank doesn't ask us to cash checks. The PC(USA) should make a deal with the FDA: They shouldn't tell us how to worship our Lord, and we shouldn't tell them how to practice medicine."

Moore said not enough is known about the medical effects of the drug. Others argued that approving emergency contraception might also be seen as an endorsement of promiscuity.

The Rev. Kim Nelson, of San Jose, CA, pointed out that the Health Issues Committee was closely divided on the issue after heated debate. Even if emergency contraception were to become available without prescription, he said, it would still be "behind-the-counter" and require a pharmacist's counsel. "This is not about terminating a pregnancy," he said, "but a decision to support effective contraception."

Advocates pointed out that emergency contraception might prevent countless unwanted pregnancies and thousands of abortions. Requiring a physician or emergency room to prescribe it, they said, might make it unavailable to many women without medical insurance.

The Assembly defeated, without debate, an overture that would have overturned the denomination's current "pro-choice" stance on abortion and would have added a condemnation of abortion to the Book of Order.