Thank God for Abortion Providers?

By Mark D. Tooley, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, March 12, 2015

Mark Tooley is the president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).

The head of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice recently blogged for The Huffington Post an ode to abortionists:

Every day doctors, nurses, medical assistants, abortion doulas, and receptionists risk their lives to make sure that those of us seeking an abortion are met with compassion and love.

I thank God for abortion providers.

Yet, shame is always at the door. Shame stands outside the clinics shouting obscenities. Shame kills new health care workers' ambitions to provide compassionate abortion care. Shame whispers in the ears of doctors telling them they are not needed.

Despite shame's best efforts, the spirit of compassion calls healthcare workers to selflessly serve patients. The spirit of justice sustains them as they endure harassment. The spirit of abundance provides us with such caring and dedicated professionals, whose work helps heal lives and the world.

So, thank God for the important ministries abortion providers offer. Thank God for the compassion they show those of us seeking abortions. Thank God for the martyrs. Thank God for their courage. Thank God for abortion providers.

RCRC was founded in 1973 to rally religious support for unrestricted abortion rights. Its members include the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, and two United Methodist agencies. That Christian entities participate in RCRC's unalloyed celebration of destroying unborn life is a scandal.

There's more attention for liberal denominations abandoning Christian sexual ethics. But the greater outage is that 40 years ago they stopped affirming what Christianity has always believed about the sacredness of human life.

If there's any good news, it's that liberal Protestant prelates 30 and 40 years ago proudly broadcast their support for abortion rights, but today, they are almost entirely silent. Perhaps, after over 50 million exterminated unborn in America, they are embarrassed by the horror and tragedy.

But RCRC, funded by liberal foundations, chugs along, exploiting denominational affiliations to gain a sort of limited legitimacy. United Methodism nearly voted at the 2008 General Conference to withdraw from RCRC. Its defenders absurdly claimed RCRC wasn't chiefly about abortion. In 2012 a legislative committee supported withdrawal but delegates in plenary were denied the chance to vote due to behind the scenes machinations.

It should be a chief priority for United Methodists to withdraw from RCRC at the 2016 General Conference. The new emerging African majority is pro life. So too are growing numbers of younger U.S. clergy.

When United Methodism quits RCRC it will signify its departure from 20th century Protestant modernism and its return to global historic Christianity. A million unborn babies may go on being killed annually in America. But no corner of the Body of Christ should be complicit in that destruction. The Church, whatever its other failures, cannot pursue with integrity its sacred vocation without defending the innocent and most vulnerable.

Prior to joining the IRD in 1994, Mark worked eight years for the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and is a native of Arlington, Virginia. A lifelong United Methodist, he has been active in United Methodist renewal since 1988, when he wrote a study about denominational funding of pro-Marxist groups for his local congregation. He attends a United Methodist church in Alexandria, Virginia. Follow Mark on Twitter @markdtooley.