Title: ELCA Assembly Rebuffs Attempts to Limit Abortion Coverage
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 20, 1997

ELCA ASSEMBLY REBUFFS ATTEMPTS TO LIMIT ABORTION COVERAGE
97-CA-41-CA

     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 [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html