Lutherans Approve Some Abortions

After a two-year inquiry, recommendations have been completed for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to approve abortion only under certain limited conditions.

These basically are danger to the mother’s life, severe abnormalities of the fetus, rape or incest.

However, beyond those restricted circumstances, the recommendations say “we as a church disagree” on what other conditions, if any, would make abortion morally responsible.

It was the first time that a position on abortion has been projected for the 5.2-million-member denomination, formed through a merger in 1988.

Seeking a path through the thorny issue, a special church task force acknowledged a quandary--that agreement could be reached only up to a point but was blocked beyond that.

In short, the findings would condone abortion in limited, specified situations, but also recognize that some members think there should be greater latitude.

They “would include additional considerations necessary for minimal quality of life for the woman as well as the child,” the recommendations say.

Drawn up over two years by a 15-member task force that held hearings and analyzed input from congregations, the report was approved last week by the church’s Commission for Church and Society at a meeting in Park Ridge, Ill.

The commission, in turn, is proposing that the report be adopted by the denomination’s assembly during a Aug. 28-Sept. 4 meeting in Orlando, Fla., as a guiding church postion.

It would not be binding on individual members.

The report appears at a time when several Protestant denominations have gradually stiffened limitations on abortion and moves are afoot for doing so still further.

Regarding government regulation of abortion, the ELCA report says, “The position of this church is that government has a legitimate role to play in regulating abortion.”

But there needs to be “sufficient consensus” on such policy for it to be enforceable, and formulating it presents a “double challenge,” the report says, adding:

“One is to effectively protect prenatal life. The other is to protect the dignity of women and their freedom to make responsible decisions in difficult situations. . . .

“Laws should be enacted and enforced justly for the preservation and enhancement of life, and should avoid unduly encumbering or endangering the lives of women.”

The report favors prohibiting abortions after “the fetus is determined to be viable, except when the mother’s life is threatened or when lethal abnormalities indicate the prospective newborn will die very soon.”

On the other hand, the report opposes prohibitions of abortion “prior to viability” of the fetus outside the womb.

The task force that drew up the report was co-chaired by Lorrie Ellis, a nurse in a prenatal center at Centerville, Ohio, and the Rev. M. Ted Steege, director of a Lutheran public policy office in Madison, Wis.