Statement Regarding May 9 Abortion Vote of United
Methodist Church Committee
Reverend Carlton W. Veazey, President and CEO,
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

Washington, DC—The vote on so-called “partial-birth abortion” May 9 by a committee of the United Methodist Church is the result of a concerted effort by the conservative movement in the church to undermine the church’s historic support for a woman’s moral and medical right to choose abortion. The vote was taken at the General Conference in Cleveland.

The attempt to amend the Social Principles to include reference to so-called “partial-birth abortion” is part of an explicit political strategy. Opponents of abortion are trying to undercut the primacy of the woman in the complex moral and ethical abortion decision and convince the public that “partial-birth abortion” is a common late-term procedure, when in fact it is extremely rare. In addition, legislation banning “partial-birth abortion” is so broadly written that it outlaws safe and common procedures used throughout pregnancy, including before viability.

Issues related to the Social Principles have previously come before the Committee on Church and Society. At the present General Conference, these issues have been purposely placed before the Faith and Order Committee, which this year is overwhelmingly composed of those from the conservative movement in the church. The issue of abortion is unfamiliar to some on the Committee and there is considerable misinformation about abortion.

We are concerned about an Associated Press report published in the May 10 Washington Post that the General Conference “usually approves committee recommendations.” In this case, we are convinced the vote in the Faith and Order Committee does not reflect the view of the General Conference and that the General Conference will reject the amendment regarding abortion, in the tradition of social justice and compassion for which Methodists are so rightly known.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, founded in 1973, is the national interfaith coalition of more than 40 organizations, representing 16 denominations, faith groups, and religiously affiliated groups from the United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Unitarian Universalist Association, United Church of Christ, and the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements of Judaism as well as others. The United Methodist Church is represented in the Religious Coalition through the General Board of Church and Society and the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries.

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