Abortion Reform

49th General Assembly
November 1967
Montreal, Quebec


Humane considerations motivate us to speak out in the name of our United States members in favor of needed revisions in the abortion laws of many states. In recent months the moral imperative to modernize abortion legislation has become and important issue in the legislatures of many states.

Each year a great number of American women, many of them married, seek abortions. Most existing state statutes penalize the poor who cannot afford recourse to those services which the more affluent in our society can and do find. But for the poor or affluent alike, illegal abortions yearly take a tragic and needless toll.

We commend those states which have enacted humane legislation in this area and we appeal to other states to do likewise and permit abortions under such circumstances as threatened disease or deformity of the embryo or fetus, threats to the physical and mental health of the mother, rape and incest and the social, economic and psychological factors that might warrant therapeutic termination of pregnancy.

We urge our constituent congregations to join with other forward looking citizens in securing needed revisions and liberalization of abortion laws.