Posted on 03/17/2017 1:27:51 AM PDT by Morgana
FULL TITLE: Lutheran, Episcopal and United Church of Christ Clergy: “We Stand With Planned Parenthood” Abortion Biz
A group of female clergy from Iowa wrote a letter this week to publicly state their support of the abortion chain Planned Parenthood.
The letter, published in the Des Moines Register on Wednesday, included signatures from seven women pastors from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Episcopal Church, Unitarian Universalist Association, Christian Church (Disciple of Christ) and Unity Church. A note included with the letter said the pastors were not speaking on behalf of their denominations or congregations.
The pastors praised Planned Parenthood’s work and blasted a state bill that would defund the abortion group and redirect tax dollars to community health centers that don’t provide abortions.
“As clergy and as women, we oppose any action by the Iowa Legislature to restrict a woman’s ability to make her own health care and reproductive decisions or to access health care services,” they wrote. “Additionally, we support Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the excellent care it provides for any woman who chooses its health care services.”
In February, the Iowa Senate passed Senate File 2 to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups in the state. The legislation would direct taxpayer funding to federally qualified health centers that provide more comprehensive health care but not abortions. The bill currently is being considered in the state House.
In their letter, the pastors described the bill as “dangerous” and “extreme” legislation that “threatens access to basic health care for low-income women.”
They also claimed that legislators’ opposition to abortion is purely religious. They wrote:
All arguments against a woman’s reproductive choices are based in morality and religious beliefs, using those religious beliefs to change the law and infringe upon the rights of women. Through our faiths, we are joining together to balance those arguments and to assure legislators that the religious community does not speak with one voice.
We are deeply committed to social justice, which includes caring for the poor and oppressed. Defunding and shutting down Planned Parenthood would hurt those struggling to get by and those who already face many barriers in accessing health care.
As clergy and as women, we know that women are well equipped to make their own health care decisions. We also believe that this bill is a matter of legislating inequality and will deny low-income women access to quality family planning services.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately
Their letter makes a number of assumptions that are not true, one being that the pro-life position is entirely a religious one. While Christians make up a large part of the movement, there also are quite a few secular pro-lifers.
Data also does not back up their claim that women will lose access to health care if Planned Parenthood is defunded.
As previously reported, supporters of Senate File 2 contend that Iowa “women will have access to 221 clinics statewide that will expand coverage to rural women who must now make long drives to urban areas for family planning services.”
Women can find much more comprehensive health care at community health clinics. The non-abortion services that Planned Parenthood provides are very limited. For example, Planned Parenthoods do not provide mammograms and very few provide prenatal care; and those that provide ultrasounds appear to do so only for abortion purposes.
Data from the abortion group’s own reports show a growing focus on abortions and a continuous decrease in its non-abortion services. From 2009 to 2014, “cancer screenings” dropped from 1,830,811 to just 682,208. “Breast exams/breast care” fell by more than half, from 830,312 in 2009 to 363,803 in 2014 and Pap smear tests dropped nearly two-thirds, from 904,820 to 271,539. In that same time period, Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers remained steady, hovering around 320,000 per year.
Iowa is one of a number of states that are moving to defund the abortion group.
Last week, Republicans in U.S. Congress released the American Health Care Act. Their plan to repeal Obamacare includes provisions that would revoke funding for Planned Parenthood. A provision in the bill prohibits states from using “direct spending” on “prohibited entities” with federal funds allocated from the legislation; and those entities include any entity that “provides for abortions.” That means the nation’s biggest abortion corporation — Planned Parenthood.
President Donald Trump recently offered Planned Parenthood a deal that would have allowed it to keep receiving tax money if it stopped doing abortions. Planned Parenthood refused.
Of course, I had no answer—great puzzlement resulted.
Meanwhile more conservative denominations like the Presbyterian Church of America are growing at a staggering rate.
From the letter : The legislature’s actions are based on “MORALITY and religion”. Emphasis added. How ironic that pastors are complaining of laws based on morality. I’m gobsmacked at the irony.
Still it shocks me that most if not all of these denominations were very conservative at one time. Now, the difference is between night and day.
Not all Lutheran Churches are Evangelical. That is the liberal version.
There you go. Pro choice = kill babies. Very sad. Rubbers are 50 cents in a bar bathroom (yeah... I’m not perfect and that’s why I know the privie has cheap rubbers). BCP are free for women. But there is no excuse, for killing a baby in the womb. NONE!!!
Call me a sinner. I am a sinner. How can anyone kill a child? No matter what you call a child (lump of cells, unviable tissue etc...) it is a baby. It is a child. It is a human. Look what progressives have achieved. People willingly walk in to the “ovens” of the abortion mills. Black people call each other “nigga” as if it is nothing. Whites bow down for decapitation.
Sad
Nice to see somebody besides me still calls them rubbers...
“Suffer little children to come unto me”. These “women” are not Christian
three lost churches. Preaching against God is not a winning strategy.
Heretic Lutheran denominations. Not faithful ones.
Should lose their tax exempt status.
>> A group of female clergy from Iowa wrote a letter
Their sense of worth defined by having the right and means to kill nascent life.
So much for the ‘holy estrogen ‘ protectors of human innocent baby lives from God’s creation. They can’t hide behind a robe or frock and claim to be a servant and minister of Christ when they sanctify murderous deeds more in line with El Diablo.
Well... that certainly clarifies the denominational selection process...
All these people and the churches that they represent, know that they are WRONG!
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” ― Mother Teresa
“I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is 'Abortion', because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, 'Murder' by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love... And we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts...” ― Mother Teresa
It is religious in the sense that most religions admonish against murder. By any scientific measure, the unborn child is as alive and human as any born child.
Do these "pastors" also complain that opposition to other forms of murder is purely religious, and can therefore, by their logic, be dispensed with in a modern society?
I stopped gong to the small Lutheran church here when they hung out the rainbow flag and preached about gay rights.
I must not be the only one because I saw last week they had all the furnishings for sale.
Pretty sad sign of the times when the church sanctions killing babies.
SINNERS !!!!!! all of you !!!! You kill God’s children and then pray for God’s forgiveness ,,, I don’t think it works that way . It’s still murder !!!!!!!!
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