WASHINGTON, D.C., June 19, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Protestants take diametrically opposing views of abortion in America. While the Southern Baptist Convention just “declared war” on Planned Parenthood, calling on Congress to defund the nation's largest abortion business of tax dollars, other denominations are urging Capitol Hill legislators to continue giving half a billion tax dollars to the country’s largest abortion provider.
More than 150 liberal organizations, including the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church as well as Presbyterian and Jewish organizations, signed a letter calling for U.S. senators to keep Planned Parenthood on the government dole. The letter also champions support for Obamacare and Medicaid expansion.
“We urge you to oppose any repeal of the Affordable Care Act, attempts to change Medicaid’s open-ended funding guarantee into a block grant or per capita caps, and any attempts to defund Planned Parenthood,” the letter reads.
The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries, the Women's Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the National Council of Churches laid their weight squarely on tax funding for Planned Parenthood.
Other signing organizations under a religious banner include “Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options,” the “NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice,” the “National Council of Jewish Women” and several other groups professing Judaic foundations.
Besides other liberal, pro-abortion, and pro-homosexual organizations, the letter was signed by the League of Women Voters, the YWCA, and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. All signing organizations are listed here.
“It’s scandalous that the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society is lobbying in favor of Planned Parenthood federal funding,” Institute on Religion and Democracy President Mark Tooley, a Methodist, told LifeSiteNews.
Tooley says his denomination is slowly transitioning from promoting a culture of death to affirming life. “United Methodism is heading in an increasingly pro-life direction and last year required the board to quit the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The board in its abortion rights advocacy represents a minority of USA United Methodists in an increasingly global and orthodox denomination that is returning to classic Christian teaching about the sanctity of all human life.”
“Though only constituted as a denomination in 1957, the United Church of Christ (UCC) has been consistently in favor of abortion since the early 1970s,” John Brown Jr. wrote in an expose on his denomination's historic support for abortion. “Even before that, a number of UCC clergy participated in … as a nationwide illegal abortion referral system.”
“The ongoing effort to bring change on the life issues within the UCC is somewhat akin to that of the pro-life movement to bring about change within our nation,” Brown surmised. “Though there have been some victories, the UCC and the United States as a whole continue to promote a 'culture of death.'”
John S.A. Lomperis of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, himself a Methodist, told LifeSiteNews that the denomination's General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) is only one of several “subgroups” within the denomination that “sometimes contradict and fight with each other.”
“In the United Methodist Church’s structure, there is only one body that can officially speak, represent, or DO anything on behalf of the entire United Methodist Church,” Lomperis explained. “It’s called the General Conference. Its members are called delegates and are elected every four years, and I am one such delegate.”
Lomperis went even further to illlumine the pro-abortion role of the GBCS. “This GBCS has long existed as a 'rogue agency' that only represents the most radical left wing minority of the church,” he said. “We have been trying to bring accountability, but it has been a long struggle.”
The U.S. House passed a bill to replace ObamaCare and defund Planned Parenthood, but the Senate has yet to act.
It is important to note that the legislative effort to “defund” Planned Parenthood is misnamed. Planned Parenthood businesses charge for their services and will continue to. The “defund” move simply redistributes tax dollars to non-aborting health clinics.
The House bill ensures health care access by redirecting tax funds to legitimate health clinics, which outnumber Planned Parenthood abortuaries across the nation 20-to-1. Such legitimate health clinics offer much more comprehensive care and do not commit abortions.
Despite facts to the contrary, signers claimed that taking tax funding from the abortion behemoth would take away healthcare for the poor, including cancer screenings.
Though its president and its promotional material proclaim the business does more legitimate healthcare for women than it does abortions, Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms, x-rays for cancer, biopsies, CT scans, endometrial biopsies, or many other basic cancer screenings.
Abortions outnumber even the simple, do-it-yourself breast exams at the nation's most lucrative abortion dealer.