ELCA Assembly Rebuffs Attempts to Limit Abortion Coverage

     PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting here Aug. 14-20, has overwhelmingly rebuffed efforts to prevent its medical benefits plan from paying for induced abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, severe fetal abnormalities or a threat to the life or health of the mother.
     By a vote of 809 to 121, the assembly endorsed a recommendation commending the church's 1991 social statement on abortion, pledging to continue "moral deliberation" on the subject and asking the ELCA Board of Pensions to provide information on "educational efforts on abortion."
     That action was in response to resolutions from the ELCA's South Dakota Synod, Northeastern Minnesota Synod, Central-Southern Illinois Synod and Lower Susquehanna Synod that sought to limit the plan's ability to pay for abortions.
     An attempt to amend the recommendation, in a way that would have limited the plan's ability to pay for abortions, failed by a vote of 651 to 271.
     The ELCA Board of Pensions already took steps in April of this year to limit the plan's ability to pay for late-term abortions, said the Rev. John G. Kapanke, president of the Board.

For information contact:

Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html