Whereas, even the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, which is a pro-choice organization, says that 90% of abortions are done for birth control reasons and that only 6% of all abortions are done for health-related problems (from their publication entitled Family Planning Perspectives); and
Whereas, the primary national voice of The United Methodist Church on the abortion problem has been that of United Methodist agency representatives' advocation directly and through the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (formerly RCAR) for taxpayer-funded abortions with no disclaimers against the 90% of abortions performed for birth control and gender selection reasons; and
Whereas, we vigorously support adoption as an invaluable means of caring for children who would have been aborted for any reason since we believethat "children are a gift from God to be welcomed and received" (¶ 71I); and
Whereas, The United Methodist Church still calls itself a church of Jesus Christ the Savior, who came to save lives deemed unwanted by the world;
Therefore, be it resolved, that the 1996 General Conference (a) promote The United Methodist Church's clear opposition to the 90% of abortions performed for birth control reasons; (b) proclaim the unprofaned sanctity of pre-born human life in light of the Christian church's historic witness; (c) protect women from economic, social, and legal inducements to seek abortions and/or to use abortion-causing medications (like RU-486 and its generics); (d) work to prevent the public funding of abortions for birth control and gender selection reasons; (e) protest experiments on human fetuses, as well as in vitro or in vivo experimentation on human embryos not obtained from natural abortion (miscarriage); and most importantly, (f) that the General Conference provide funds for: 1) information and resources to parents seeking to adopt children; 2) more vigorous advertisement about maternity and adoption centers, particularly those associated with The United Methodist Church, such as the Methodist Mission Home in San Antonio, Texas; 3) counseling of mothers, married or unmarried, who are pregnant, but who are having a difficult time deciding between abortion, adoption, or keeping their baby, to encourage them to place their pre-born babies in the adoption process (if they are not going to keep the baby) because there are many couples who are desperate to adopt a baby of any gender or race.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
Petition Text: 22452-CS-NonDis-O
1996 United Methodist General Conference