PARO welcomes those who support the full range of reproductive options that ensure that every child is loved and wanted. They are committed to ensuring that the policy of the PC(USA) is articulated, understood, and preserved for future generations.
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False Dichotomies
By marciglass October 3, 2012
Many people presume that because I am a pastor, I must, therefore, be pro-life. It is presumed to be the “Christian” position on the subject, right?
And I want to be able to call myself “pro-life”. Really, I do. I am a big fan of life. I am thankful for it. I do my best to treasure it each day. I work hard in both my personal and professional life to try to make life better for the people I encounter on this journey through life.
Life is beautiful. Life is a gift. Life is precious.
Who wouldn’t be a fan of life?
So I want to declare myself “pro-life”.
But, somehow, that term has already been taken. And the people who have claimed it have told me I don’t belong. That I can’t be in the club because, as much as I love life, I also believe women should be able to make their own choices about pregnancies and abortion.
Free birth control cuts abortion rate dramatically, study finds
By Brian Alexander, NBC News Contributor, October 4, 2012
National Adoption Month 2012, and beyond…
The month of November has been observed as National Adoption Month for the past seventeen years, by proclamation of the President of the United States. It is an initiative of the Children's Bureau, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, supported through AdoptUSKids and Child Welfare Information Gateway, members of the Children's Bureau Training and Technical Assistance Network. This partnership provides valuable resources and technical assistance to raise public awareness about the need for foster and adoptive families for children in the public child welfare system; and to assist U.S. States, Territories, and Tribes to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families and connect them with children.
You may be interested in The Spirit of Adoption; At Home in God's Family, by Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, published in 2003 by Westminster John Knox Press.
“In this heart-felt theology of adoption, Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner argues that while the church has long understood the grounding self-concept of a Christian as a "child of God," it has failed to underscore that we all come into the family of faith by adoption. She explores adoption as a central theme in Scripture, as a doctrine of faith, and as a theological metaphor. Further, in using her own experience of adoption to inform her scholarship, Stevenson-Moessner offers help to all those touched by adoption, including adoptive parents…”
Of Power, Women, Voting, and Prayer
By The Rev. Bebb Wheeler Stone, Ph.D., President of the Presbyterian Health, Education & Welfare Association (PHEWA)
Political rhetoric is always about power. As a woman listening to current political rhetoric, I am convinced that the political contest among some has been framed to gain power over American women. The gains for American women to full citizenship and full moral agency made through great struggle over the past 90 years are threatened.
My Republican grandmother and great-grandmother were suffragists from central New York. In the early 20th century, the two of them—dressed in their best dresses, hats, and gloves, and armed with calling cards—knocked on doors, circulated petitions, and argued for their right to vote. They and their suffragist allies organized from the basement of the local Presbyterian Church. My grandfather fully supported their efforts.
Organizing for the right to vote in a place of prayer makes perfect sense when one considers the etymology of the word “suffrage,” which means both “to vote” and “to pray.”[1] Indeed, in a representative democracy when citizens vote, they are in a very real sense praying for their values to be carried forward as policies by the individuals for whom they vote. The democratic process has a spiritual component. The effort to suppress voting in some states is, to my mind, a much greater threat to religious freedom than the state requiring insurance coverage from all institutions that accept public funding.
At the moment, women voters are being asked to pray for their own return to silence and certainly more frequent pregnancies. One is tempted to ask whether the next suggestion will be for women to cover their heads as well? It’s biblical, after all: see Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, chapter 14. One wonders whether a certain segment of the American male population has become secretly envious of those cultures where women are veiled, or can’t drive, or are excluded from civic power.[2] Perhaps it’s simply racist: based on fear that white women are not having enough babies?
What does pro-choice really mean?
By Sylvia Thorson-Smith
Pro-choice—for choice. So simple and yet so complex.
The most basic definition for pro-choice,and the one offered by Webster’s dictionary, is “favoring the legalization of abortion,” which is clearly what was meant when the term was first used in the mid-1970s. Following the Roe v.Wade decision by the Supreme Court in 1973, the legality of abortion was challenged and increasingly debated. Pro-choice became the common self-description of people who supported the Court’s legalization. Since then, the term has come to describe those who support the right of women to make decisions about the full range of options regarding their reproductive lives.
Prayerfully Supporting Women and the Choices They Make
Problem Pregnancies and Abortion
The 204th General Assembly (1992) Response to The Report of the Special Committee on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion (Majority Report)
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has worked for years to address the diverse opinions concerning individuals and families who face problem pregnancies and the question of abortion. In an effort to be an agent of healing in the life of our denomination, a diverse special committee was formed and composed a majority report, “Problem Pregnancies and Abortion,” that was adopted by the 204th (1992) General Assembly and has remained Presbyterian policy for 15 years.
Theological Principles
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Reproductive Options
This material is from “Problem Pregnancies and Abortion,” pages 4-10 (a report received and approved by the 204th General Assembly [1992]). Our Presbyterian Understanding of Scripture
The unique and authoritative witness we have for the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is Scripture … Scripture is not a book of formulas, of directions in a mechanical sense. It is a book of history, of poetry, of letters, of stories, and in the midst of these forms are commandments and teachings
Reproductive health information: Separating fact from fiction
Myths are common in the often heated discussions around reproductive health. PARO is dedicating this space to exploring those myths. Check back often to see additional myths "busted."
Myth: The number of abortions could be reduced by making abortion illegal.
Myth: When teens have true faith in Jesus they do not need sex education.
Myth: The Bible is clear in its opposition to abortion.
Myth: Women who have an abortion are more likely to have emotional problems.
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC)
“The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was among the founding members of The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in 1973, with leadership of our much beloved Mary Jane Patterson, then serving as Director of the PC(USA) Washington Office. RCRC’s website says, “The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is the national community of religious and spiritual people, denominations, and organizations from all faith traditions dedicated to achieving reproductive justice. For people of faith, reproductive justice is a moral imperative, grounded in centuries of sacred texts.
Through education, mobilization and advocacy, we are leading the religious movement to advance the health and well-being of women and families.
RCRC mobilizes the moral force of thousands of clergy, religious leaders, and other people of faith. Together, we work for ethical and responsible policies, laws and resources that make reproductive health care and rights accessible to all. Our religious traditions call us to this sacred work.”
They offer prayers and sermons and other resources and educational series.
