Mainline churches participate
in abortion rights march
By John Lomperis

On Sunday, April 25, hundreds of thousands of abortion rights supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., for the "March for Women's Lives." One rally speaker claimed-with obvious hyperbole-that 41 million people had turned out for the event. Ironically, that is only slightly less than the number of American unborn children who have lost their lives to abortion since 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

The April 25 march had a predictable coalition of principal organizers: Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The large list of official co-sponsors included many interesting groups, such as the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Communist Party USA, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Green Party of the United States, the Human Rights Campaign (America's largest homosexual advocacy group), the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, Global Goddess, the Ladies' Misbehavior Society, and Bitch magazine. 

The United Methodist Church's General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) and the Women's Division of its General Board of Global Ministries also offered their unqualified endorsement to the event, marching side-by-side with their secular counterparts in the abortion rights movement. The Women's Division went so far as to contribute $5,000 to help underwrite expenses for the march.

Other officially participating religious bodies were the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ (UCC), the American Friends Service Committee, the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA), and the Unitarian Universalist Association. Representatives of the UM Board of Church and Society, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the Episcopal Church marched with official banners from their respective denominations. A sign on the front door of the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill that day declared that God was speaking through the UCC to support the march. Earlier that morning, the UCC's political action branch (which is housed in the United Methodist Building) hosted a breakfast for march participants.

Another group active in supporting and participating in the march was the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), a pro-abortion political lobby supported by the aforementioned Protestant groups, among others. On the Friday before the main event, RCRC organized an effort to lobby members of Congress after a send-off luncheon in the United Methodist Building, which neither members of the media nor concerned United Methodists were allowed to observe. 

The day before the march, RCRC held a 24-hour "Interfaith Prayer Vigil." Throughout the day, however, the group was unable to maintain a significant number of people willing to pray for the cause of abortion. At least twice, the vigil was reduced to a skeleton crew of one.

Immediately before the march's opening rally, RCRC organized an "Interfaith Worship Service" attended by several hundred enthusiastic, sign-waving activists. Rabbi Balfour Brickner pulled no punches in denouncing abortion opponents as "twisted ideologues" who have "carr[ied] us back into the Middle Ages" and who want to "again teach everybody that the Earth is flat and the sun revolves around it, . who would teach us that the Bible is inerrantly true and not a book of mythology." He also attacked promoters of pre-marital chastity for "forc[ing] kids into abstinence pledges they and we know they can't, won't, and don't keep." (Brickner is a long-time abortion enthusiast. While testifying before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments in 1974 about abortion-related legislation, Brickner claimed that in Judaism, babies do not obtain legal rights as full human beings until thirty days after birth.)

Other speakers at the service labeled pro-life people as "extremists" and "the forces of oppression." The Rev. Mark Pawlowski of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) claimed that "God stands with all of us, regardless of where we stand" and that whenever "women choose to have abortions, they are acting with integrity." The Presbyterian minister did not seem to leave any room for the possibility that some abortions might be immoral, or that God might stand in judgment of these and other sinful acts.

Participants in the worship service-which felt more like a rally-also heard from Genie Bank, president of United Methodist Women, and the Rev. Ignacio Castuera, a United Methodist clergyman from California who was recently appointed to be Planned Parenthood's chaplain. There were also speakers from several non-Christian faith traditions.

The march around Capitol Hill began and ended with a rally on the Mall in which participants heard from dozens of celebrities and veteran activists, including the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, an Episcopal priest, and the Rev. Carlton Veazey, head of RCRC. The latter claimed to speak for the members of all the RCRC-endorsing denominations and alleged that pro-life people not only oppose abortion rights but "are trying to roll back every right!"

Frances Kissling of the deceptively named "Catholics for a Free Choice" told the cheering crowd that the rally site was "sacred space" and that "this is the place to be on Sunday morning-not the churches!" before going onto to excoriate the Pope and other Roman Catholic officials. Kissling suggested that church leaders have no right to convey firm moral guidelines to their members, declaring that "we will not put up with religious leaders that tell us that women do not have a right to control their own destiny-that is a sin!" and leading a chant of "Not the church! Not the state! Women will control their fate!"

Many of the speakers made the odd and ironic assertion that it was not for themselves but "for the children" that they were defending abortion. U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) even declared: "I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion."

Those not in attendance will have little idea of the amount of extreme vulgarity that was common in the signs, slogans, and behaviors of the demonstrators, as well as in some official speeches from the podium. The countless lewd references to female anatomy and sexual acts are unprintable.

The event had an unmistakably partisan tone. Many of the official speakers made explicit exhortations urging the crowd to "put a Democrat in the White House"-in the words of actress Linda Carter (a.k.a., Wonder Woman)-and "to elect John Kerry"-in the words of Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). The roster of featured speakers included fourteen members of Congress, all of whom were Democrats.

The agenda of the event clearly went far beyond what even many "pro-choice" Americans believe, as countless speakers denounced the federal ban on partial-birth abortions, called for increased taxpayer funds for abortion, and attacked laws requiring minor children to notify their parents before undergoing abortion surgery. Pro-life people were denounced as "cowards," "peckerwood anti-choice fanatics," and people "who have no shame," among many other epithets. ("Peckerwood" is a derogatory term for a rural white southerner.) A recurring theme in many of the signs and official speeches was that the causes of abortion and gay rights were "sister movements" with the same enemies.

While speaker after speaker claimed that "most Americans support us," a Zogby poll taken one week before the march revealed that 49 percent of Americans self-identify as "pro-life" while only 45 percent self-identify as "pro-choice." Furthermore, 70 percent of Americans favor making partial-birth abortion illegal, according to a CNN poll from January 2003.

During the course of the march, hundreds of peaceful pro-life counter-protestors endured a steady stream of hurled curses, hateful shouts, and even an occasional projectile (including black ink, spit, Planned Parenthood condoms with crude jokes on them, an egg, and a flier picturing Jesus that read: "Save Lives / Abort Christ"). The main pro-life groups represented were American Collegians for Life; Silent No More (a Christian ministry of and for post-abortive women); Feminists for Life; an African-American evangelical group called the Life, Education and Resource Network (LEARN), and Operation Witness. The pro-choice marchers reserved some of their most energetic shouts and confrontations for the Silent No More women quietly holding signs that said, simply, "I Regret My Abortion."

At one point a march participant pointed to an RCRC sign and mockingly yelled to a cluster of pro-life counter-protesters, "Jesus is with us!"

 

John Lomperis is a research assistant for UMAction in Washington, D.C.

Unity and abortion

The 2004 General Conference of the United Methodist Church ended on a theatrical note as delegates voted for a resolution affirming denominational unity. It was teethless, with no accountability. It cost nothing. It was the easiest vote of the General Conference.

How, for example, does the unity resolution affect the Women's Division sponsorship of the April 25 march in Washington, D.C. to support abortion-on-demand? United Methodism's good name was added to the list of supporters of this political demonstration that utilized extreme, hate-filled, and vitriolic language. Why should the cross and flame of United Methodism be dragged into such a political cause? Where can we turn to protest? Why should United Methodists who hold to pro-life views of abortion be alienated and marginalized within their own denomination when Women's Division leaders act as if they are sisters without accountability to a much larger family?

Our denomination reflects our nation's schizophrenia regarding this heart-rending issue-it both supports and rejects abortion. Although the United Methodist Church is America's largest religious body supporting legalized abortion, it also recognizes "the sanctity of unborn human life" and states: "We cannot affirm abortion as an acceptable means of birth control, and we unconditionally reject it as a means of gender selection." At the 2000 General Conference, United Methodism overwhelmingly voted to oppose the late-term procedure known as dilation and extraction (partial-birth abortion).

United Methodism opposes birth control abortions, the March for Women's Lives supported them. United Methodism opposes gender selection abortions, the March for Women's Lives supported them. United Methodism opposes partial-birth abortions, the March for Women's Lives supported them.

Despite United Methodism's opposition to the vast majority of abortions being performed in the United States, the Women's Division chose to drag our denomination into a narrow, rancorous, and divisive political agenda. What good does the unity resolution do in a case like this?                                   -Good News editorial team



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