Last week the Methodist Church’s annual Conference voted in favour of producing a new briefing to clarify the church’s position on abortion.
The Church’s original 1976 statement on the subject will not be altered but the new briefing, to be produced by the Joint Public Issues Team, will try to explain the Methodist position on abortion “in modern language” and “place this in the context of modern law and science”. This will take into consideration recent research on fetal pain and the psychological effects of abortion on women.
A spokesperson for the ProLife Alliance said:
“We welcome the open discussion which the Methodist Church is conducting into the issue of abortion. Too often people and organisations are guilty of burying their heads in the sand when it comes to discussion of such an important but controversial issue.
“However we would urge them to go beyond clarifying their position to reconsidering it entirely. Their original document states that abortion is always an evil, and “there is never any moment from conception onwards when the fetus totally lacks human significance”. These statements need to be taken to their logical conclusion: that a human being is formed at conception and has as much a right to life as anyone else.
“It is interesting to note that the Methodist Church is one of the partner churches in a Christmas campaign which portrays an ultrasound image of “baby Jesus” in the womb with the title “He’s on His way”. Presumably they would not want to send mixed messages about abortion while heralding the birth of Christ.
We would urge all our supporters to get in touch with the Joint Public Issues Team to influence the creation of the briefing.”
The 1976 statement on abortion recognises the humanity of the fetus, rejects abortion on demand, states that abortion should be limited to the first 20 weeks, and calls for counselling for women thinking of proceeding with an abortion. However the document argues that “abortion is often morally justifiable”, including for disability.
To get in contact with the Joint Public Issues Team please email enquiries@jointpublicissues.org.uk.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
From conception, an embryo is no less human
July 8th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Abortion can never be justifiable except to save the life of the mother. Women deserve better than to be told it5is ok to kill their unborn child no matter how small the little one is. I would urge the Metodist church to scrap its statement that abortion can often be morally justified if the fetus is under 20 weeks. I urge the Methodists to bring their stance on abortion into line with other religious denominations such as Anglicanism, Romqan Catholicism, Judaism or Islam who all condemn abortion.
July 13th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
The Methodist Statement of 1976 is deeply flawed in many ways, among them:
1. It fails to recognise that human life begins at conception. Consequently, it plays down the moral gravity of early abortions. Not only is this fundamentally wrong but it is highly dangerous leading to panic decisions being made early in pregnancy.
2. It contains negative notions regarding disabilities. The Joint Public Issues Team should, before proceeding further, view the commentary by Alison Davis of No Less Human.
3. It assumes that there is a conflict of interest between an expectant mother and her unborn child. In reality it is the pro-life organisations which are supportive of women.
The current policy is in need of thorough revision. It is vital, therefore, that as many pro-lifers as possible take this opportunity to contact the Joint Public Issues Team which acts not only for the Methodist Church but also for the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church.
August 11th, 2010 at 12:40 am
Every women should have the right to choose. It is not murder to have an abortion.
November 10th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Although i do agree that 24 weeks is a too far into prgnancy to terminate, by such time the feotus has developed far too much by such a stage, however i do not agree that abortion is immoral. I ideally would like to see the abortion cut off point being no more that 10 weeks. This is more than enough time for the monther to idenify she is pregnant and she does not want to carry the feotus whilst the feotus has not developed into anything that resembles anything that could be refered to as human.
An embryo is just a small collection of cells with no nervous system, no pain and no cognative thought. To terminate an embryo is no different to other forms of contraception.
Some people will say it is immoral because the potential of a baby to grow has been terminated, but surely we terminate the “potential” for a baby to grow everytime we use contraception, or even refuse sex at any time, after all it may lead to baby and to refuse sex would terminate the potential for a baby.
November 25th, 2010 at 12:44 am
Sorry Helen, I sense pain in your comment, but the facts are these:
Birth is not the start of a new human life–just a change of the baby’s environment. A new life actually begins in the womb (usually in the womb’s fallopian tube) when a single sperm cell from the father fertilises an egg (ovum) from the mother.
At fertilisation (conception), a new, unique, living human individual is present. He or she is not part of the mother any more than he or she is part of the father. At conception all the hereditary characteristics of the new human being are established, including colour of eyes, gender and build. Nothing more is needed to determine the development of the embryo.
All the information about how the baby is to grow and develop is contained in the original single cell at conception. Nothing is added after conception except oxygen and nutrients (food and water), the same essentials that are needed to sustain human life after birth.