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.
Once again, something is missing from a news article.
What, pray tell, you say? THEIR NAMES
They open themselves up for ridicule and shame, yet article writers and posters protect these POS by not revealing their names, which they, themselves provided to be posted at the end of their letter in The Des Moines Register newspaper.
Rev. LeAnn Stubbs, United Church of Christ
Rev. Beverlee Bell, United Methodist Church
Rev. Deborah Hill-Davis, Unity Church
Rev. Erin Gingrich, Unitarian Universalist Association
Rev. Debbie Griffin, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Rev. Rachel Thorson Mithelman, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Rev. Jean McCarthy, The Episcopal Church
I’ll give them credit for one thing. They were willing to use their names in association with their heretical beliefs.
There is a “special” place in hell for false prophets/teachers. Woe unto them.
2 Peter 2 New International Version (NIV)
False Teachers and Their Destruction
2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”[g] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
Do these so-called “clergy” not KNOW the bible? Can they not READ? Pity and pray for those they have ensnared into their depraved congregations.
Just a little aside...
Notice “2 Peter”, not 2nd Peter, or second Peter.
They want to disobey the Commandments?
“Thou shalt not kill.”
I guess these Lutheran, Episcopal and United Church of Christ people have fallen further than I realized.
“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!!!”
Know this is the religion forum but gonna say it anyway. Condoms are sold in almost all women’s bathrooms in gas stations that I have had to use. Can I get a tampon or maxi pad (pardon me if I seem un-lady like but it is a natural woman’s function after all) no I can’t! Most gas stations have a huge vending machine in the bathrooms selling every kind of condom and K-Y jelly but a Kotex or Tampax? Not even one of those slots was open for that! Yea I’m ranting but can’t be the only female on the planet who has needed one and the only thing available was a “Trojan ribbed for her pleasure”, I’m like SHUT UP I’M PMS-ing.
To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi “Who’s the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?”
What kind of a “Christian” would stand with Unitarians?
No one is exempt from turning and looking to the right or to the left, but never so much so as now.
Ours is a time of fundamental transformation, where we easily rewrite His Law in our own image to suit our physical body's wants and needs as our egos wish it to be, thus remaking us into low hanging fruit soon spoiled.
If this time is not cut short, I definitely can see how none of us will survive it.
Agree. These female preachers refuse to read the entire Bible. We are told to not add or subtract from the Bible. They obviously have not even read the Bible.
In their zeal to be sophisticated, they’re making themselves less relevant every day, to those who truly want a relationship with Jesus.
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