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Connie Paige has been quoted as having said that, "the Roman Catholic Church created the right-to-life movement. Without the church, the movement would not exist as such today. New Jersey attorney Juan Ryan served as the organization's first president. From to , the organization published a newsletter that informed member organizations about abortion-related legislation in the states.
Wade decision which struck down most state laws in the United States restricting abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy , the National Conference of Catholic Bishops launched into a campaign to amend the United States Constitution with the enactment of a Human Life Amendment seeking not only to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, but to also forbid both Congress and the states from legalizing abortion within the United States.
Among the organization's founding members was Dr. Jefferson subsequently served as president of the organization. The newsletter has been in continuous publication since November and is now published daily online as the news and commentary feed, National Right To Life News Today. Many controversies have arisen over its treatment of Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
In some cases, bishops have threatened to withhold communion to such politicians; in others, bishops have urged politicians in this situation to refrain from receiving communion. In a few cases, such as the case of Mario Cuomo , the possibility of excommunication has been considered. The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that life begins at conception, and that abortion including the use of abortifacient drugs is the taking of a human life.
The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church states that, if it is because of a direct threat to her life that a woman interrupts her pregnancy, especially if she already has other children, she is not to be excommunicated from the church because of this sin, which however she must confess to a priest and fulfill the penance that he assigns:. In case of a direct threat to the life of a mother if her pregnancy continues, especially if she has other children, it is recommended to be lenient in the pastoral practice.
If someone feels like ending their pregnancy is what they need to do, there is no reason why they shouldn't be able to, and no reason why God. Is God pro choice or pro life? Human life is sacred. An unborn baby is sacred to God no matter what size a person is. Life begins at conception.
The woman who interrupted pregnancy in this situation shall not be excluded from the Eucharistic communion with the Church provided that she has fulfilled the canon of Penance assigned by the priest who takes her confession. The document also acknowledges that abortions often are a result of poverty and helplessness and that the Church and society should "work out effective measures to protect motherhood.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposes elective abortion based on a belief in the "sanctity of human life. Ordinances, such as naming and blessing children and sealing children to their parents, are not performed for stillborn or miscarried children. The Church Handbook of Instructions states, "It is a fact that a child has life before birth. However, there is no direct revelation on when the spirit enters the body. According to an official statement, "The Church allows for possible exceptions for its members when: Pregnancy results from rape or incest, or a competent physician determines that the life or health of the mother is in serious jeopardy, or a competent physician determines that the fetus has severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.
In the twentieth century, the debate over the morality of abortion became one of several issues which divided and continue to divide Protestantism. Thus, Protestant views on abortion vary considerably with Protestants to be found in both the "anti-abortion" and "abortion-rights" camps. African-American Protestants are much more strongly anti-abortion than white Protestants.
Criswell welcomed Roe v. Wade , saying that ""I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person," the redoubtable fundamentalist declared, "and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.
Even among Protestants who believe that abortion should be a legal option, there are those who believe that it should nonetheless be morally unacceptable in most instances. This stance was expressed by former President Bill Clinton when he asserted that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare. At the other extreme, some Protestants support freedom of choice and assert that abortion should not only be legal but even morally acceptable in certain circumstances.
The vote reflects a growing conservative tide on social issues among United Methodists, including abortion. Despite their general opposition to abortion, fundamentalist churches that include the conservative evangelical , Non-denominational , Southern Baptist and Pentecostal movements, do not have a consensus doctrine regarding abortion.
While these movements hold in common that abortion when there is no threat to the life of the mother is a form of infanticide , there is no consensus as to whether exceptions should be allowed when the mother's life is in mortal danger, or when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. Some argue that the lives of both the mother and fetus should be given equal consideration, in effect condemning all abortion including those performed to save the life of the mother.
Others argue for exceptions which favor the life of the mother, perhaps including pregnancies resulting from cases of rape or incest. The National Association of Evangelicals includes the Salvation Army , the Assemblies of God , and the Church of God , among others , and takes an anti-abortion stance.
While there is no set doctrine among member churches on if or when abortion is appropriate in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother, the NAE's position on abortion states, " During the Southern Baptist Convention, the delegates passed a resolution recognizing that "Christians in the American society today are faced with difficult decisions about abortion", stating that laws should recognize the "sanctity of human life, including fetal life", and calling upon Southern Baptists to work for laws allowing abortion in extreme cases such as rape, severe fetal deformity, and the health of the mother.
Barry Garrett wrote in the Baptist Press , "Religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the [Roe v. Wade] Supreme Court Decision. Today, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, opposes elective abortion except to save the life of the mother. The Church of England generally opposes abortion. In it stated that: We do not believe that the right to life, as a right pertaining to persons, admits of no exceptions whatever; but the right of the innocent to life admits surely of few exceptions indeed.
The Episcopal Church in the United States of America has taken an abortion-rights position and has passed resolutions at its triannual General Convention. It rejects government impediments, " The newly created Anglican Church in North America , a faction that has split from the Episcopal Church in the United States and Anglican Church of Canada that aims to represent conservative Anglicanism in North America, is pro-life , proclaiming that "all members and clergy are called to promote and respect the sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death".
The Anglican Church of Australia does not take an official position on abortion. Lutheranism in the United States consists largely of three denominations: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America maintains a pro-choice position when fetuses are aborted before viability outside of the womb. The ELCA position statement says abortion should be an option of last resort, the ELCA community should work to reduce the need for elective abortions, and that as a community, "the number of induced abortions is a source of deep concern to this church.
We mourn the loss of life that God has created. These are the threat to a woman's physical life; when pregnancy has resulted from rape, incest or sexual violence; and fetal abnormalities incompatible with life. Some hospitals affiliated with the church perform elective abortions.
The church released a statement on their website saying that abortion "is not a moral option, except as a tragically unavoidable byproduct of medical procedures necessary to prevent the death of another human being, viz. On the topic of whether abortion is allowed in the case of rape or incest, the LCMS has stated that though there are many "emotional arguments for abortion It is indeed a strange logic that would have us kill an innocent unborn baby for the crime of his father.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod adopted a resolution in July on social issues, where it includes the twofold approach: In this resolution of social issues, a resolution of the topic of abortion has been included. Within it, on the topic of abortion, the WELS continues to express its commitment to the Holy Scriptures and believes that the Holy Scriptures "clearly testify to a reverence for the life of the mother and the life of her unborn child as both being equal in value.
The Methodist Church of Great Britain takes a moderate anti-abortion position. The MCGB states that "Abortion must not be regarded as an alternative to contraception, nor is it to be justified merely as a method of birth control. Delegates voted in favor of withdrawing from the organization by a vote of The Church of Scotland is anti-abortion, stating that abortion should be allowed "only on grounds that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve serious risk to the life or grave injury to the health, whether physical or mental, of the pregnant woman.
The Presbyterian Church U. The Religious Society of Friends generally avoids taking a stance on controversial issues such as abortion; [81] however, in the s the American Friends Service Committee advocated for abortion rights. The Christian Church Disciples of Christ General Assembly has "repeatedly affirmed its support for the principles of a woman's right to reproductive freedom, of the freedom and responsibility of individual conscience, and of the sacredness of life of all persons.
While advocating respect for differences of religious beliefs concerning abortion, Disciples have consistently opposed any attempts to legislate a specific religious opinion regarding abortion for all Americans. The United Church of Christ has strongly supported abortion rights since as a part of their Justice and Witness Ministry. Community of Christ states they recognize that there is inadequacy in any simplistic answer that defines all abortion as murder or as a simple medical procedure, and recognize a woman's right in deciding the continuation or termination of pregnancy.
As the Church of God in Christ COGIC is a traditionally pro-life Pentecostal Christian denomination, both male and female leaders and clergy of COGIC have always ardently voiced and actively taken opposition to all types of abortions, "except only in the absolutely necessary case of saving the life of the mother.
Catholics said they disapproved of the statement that "abortion is morally wrong in every case". Catholics held that abortion should be illegal in all cases. According to a survey conducted by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, fundamentalist Christians are more likely to be pro-life than all other respondents, including mainline Protestants.
Twenty-eight percent of fundamentalists thought abortion should be illegal even if there was a strong chance of birth defects whereas only nine percent of mainline Protestants held the same opinion. Seventy percent of fundamentalists felt that the desire not to have more children was not a sufficient justification for having an abortion while mainline Protestants were almost evenly divided on this question. However, an overwhelming majority of both fundamentalists and mainline Protestants indicated that they would support abortion in cases where the pregnancy endangered the mother's life.
In , the Guttmacher Institute reported that two out of three women having abortions in the U.
Catholic women is about the same per capita as the average in the general U. The likelihood of a woman having an abortion is called the abortion index , with the value of 1. Using this metric in America, U. Catholics were assessed by Guttmacher Institute in the s, showing an index of 1. Protestants to have an abortion index of 0. In countries where the dominant religion is Catholicism, abortions are higher per capita than the worldwide average, says the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
Scholars generally agree that abortion was performed in the classical world, but there is disagreement about the frequency with which abortion was performed and which cultures influenced early Christian thought on abortion. The society in which Christianity expanded was one in which abortion, infanticide and exposition were commonly used to limit the number of children especially girls that a family had to support. Between the first and fourth centuries AD, the Didache , Barnabas and the Apocalypse of Peter strongly condemned and outlawed abortion. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing.
Early synods did not term abortion "murder" or punish it as such, and imposed specified penalties only on abortions that were combined with some form of sexual crime [3] and on the making of abortion drugs: Basil the Great imposed the same ten-year exclusion on any woman who purposely destroyed her unborn child, even if unformed.
Other early canons which treat abortion as equal to murder are for example: Quotations related to Abortion pre-Reformation at Wikiquote. From the 4th to 16th Century AD, Christian philosophers, while maintaining the condemnation of abortion as wrong, had varying stances on whether abortion was murder. Under the first Christian Roman emperor Constantine , there was a relaxation of attitudes toward abortion and exposure of children.
This made it possible to take a more tolerant attitude toward poor people who exposed their children. Thomas Aquinas , Pope Innocent III , and Pope Gregory XIV also believed that a fetus does not have a soul until " quickening ," or when the fetus begins to kick and move, and therefore early abortion was not murder, though later abortion was. While there are three different distinct views on abortion, they all differ in their own ways and are highly debated against.
The three different groups include pro-life, pro-choice, and the exceptions group. Under the view of the pro-life group, performing and having an abortion is equivalent to killing a human being. Once there is conception, it is considered a living human being and should therefore be granted the right to live. The only time in which abortion is considered is when the life of the mother is at stake.
This point of view is taken from those such as the Roman Catholic Church and by many Protestant Christians. The second group on the views of abortion is pro-choice. In this point of view, it is valued that the mother is in control of her own body and she can choose whether or not an abortion is necessary for her own life. Individuals in support of the pro-choice group argue that a fetus is not considered a human until they are fully capable of physically surviving outside of the mother's womb. The amount of time that is estimated that a fetus is viable is anywhere from 24—28 weeks. According to the supporters of the pro-choice group, the mother should have the decision to abort the baby or not prior to the given time.
Once week 24 arrives, the mother is no longer legally able to abort the baby and must carry it until birth. The third group pertaining to abortions is that of the exceptions, otherwise known as "situational abortion". I respect that this, in part, comes from a place of empathy. My disconnect with the "pro-life" message, aside from the obvious autonomy issue, is that very rarely have I seen my pro-life friends argue as passionately for children's healthcare or universal healthcare or refugees or against the death penalty or poverty or for mental health advocacy or homeless advocacy or for VA reform, etc.
My religion -- or anyone's religion -- has no place in the affairs of other people. And by passionately, I mean posting on social media with righteous anger, protesting on the steps of the Supreme Court, burning up the pulpit in Church, literally marching in the streets. That's hard to accept. I have some intelligent friends who claim to respect women, and in their minds, they probably think this is all about "the unborn," but there is an undeniable theme of so-called irresponsibility and selfishness and "promiscuity" on the part of women that is framed, packaged and touted by the pro-life movement.
It isn't just inaccurate. It isn't just insulting and degrading. It is absolutely deadly to women. It is an attack on them and their families, folks who have to make hard choices and should never be shamed for doing so. You claim Christ is a champion of "the unborn. Putting aside for a second that 1 your religious preference shouldn't dictate others' choices and 2 that Christ trusted women, there is a glaring hypocrisy in this line of thinking. Show me in your Bible where it talks about poverty when you say government shouldn't create social safety nets.
Show me in your Bible where it talks about the Good Samaritan when you make a decision to walk past the homeless or say that your tax dollars shouldn't go to pay for someone else's healthcare or claim that "illegal immigrants" should go back to their own country. Show me in your Bible where it talks about judgement while you claim to fully understand and dictate the very personal decisions of women and families.
Show me in your Bible where it talks about turning the other cheek while you claim that "civilian collateral damage" is necessary to the security of a free state, whether it be drone warfare or unfettered access to firearms? You say your heart is full of Christ's love, but why does that only manifest itself on this particular issue and no others? I would press on "why," but I know the answer.