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At its meeting in Belfast today, Thursday 28 February, the General Board of the Presbyterian Church, the most representative body outside its annual General Assembly, encouraged those entitled to vote in the forthcoming referendum to acquaint themselves with the issues involved and to vote in accordance with their own judgment.
'Basically the Presbyterian Church is pro-life,' says former Presbyterian Moderator and minister of Lucan, Dr Trevor Morrow. 'In so far as we are being asked to make a pragmatic choice in this referendum most Presbyterians would welcome the recognition that there are circumstances in which the life of the mother should take priority over the life of the unborn but only in the occasional extreme cases where there is a real and substantial risk of the loss of a woman's life.'
'The Church does recognise the existence of hard cases - pregnancy which is the result of a rape; a foetus which is displaying signs of abnormality, the risk of grave injury to the mental health of the mother - and is sympathetic to people in such situations and would understand why a woman might consider an abortion in those circumstances' continued Dr Morrow. 'However to legislate effectively in this area is extremely difficult and many Presbyterians would be concerned that, no matter how restrictive the legislation, it could ultimately lead to abortion on demand which the Presbyterian Church totally opposes.'
'As a Church we remain committed to upholding the biblical view that human life is special and made in the image of God. We believe in protection of children and care for mothers and would oppose any attempt to undermine or liberalise this position. The Church has always said that the constitution is not the place to deal with this issue. Nevertheless, we have been asked to make a judgement which, by its nature, must balance principle with pragmatism. The General Board, through its resolution today is encouraging Presbyterians to do that, recognising their right of private, informed judgement,' concluded Dr Morrow.
Issued by Stephen Lynas, Presbyterian Information Services. Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
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