Welcome news arrived recently on the family planning front. The National Association of Evangelicals has announced a willingness to work with groups that offer contraceptive services and other programs aimed at reducing the number of abortions.Read the rest here.
That marks progress in the polarized issue of abortion, which nine of 10 evangelicals oppose. But no one likes abortion. The difference between abortion rights supporters — many of whom provide contraception — and abortion opponents has been that many abortion opponents have also opposed contraception and even sex education, which can help reduce unplanned pregnancy. Now the NAE is officially adopting the position that contraception and other services will help reduce the number of abortions by preventing pregnancy in the first place.
The NAE represents 40 denominations, many evangelical organizations and millions of American evangelicals. The NAE board of directors unanimously adopted a resolution that supports a wide range of efforts to decrease the number of abortions in the United States. According to a statement, the NAE noted results of a Gallup poll of evangelicals that "Significant majorities of (evangelical) respondents indicated support for a wide range of possible methods for decreasing the abortion rate — from parental consent and waiting periods before abortions to efforts at making adoption, pre- and post-natal care, and contraceptive services more accessible."
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3 comments:
Not to minimize this, but an official NAE pronouncement is anticlimactic. This has been the de facto Evangelical position of many decades.
It should also be of no surprise that the official position of most teens in the surrounding parishes is of using contraception. That is why they aren't pregnant in High school because just like other kids in high school they are having sex. I know of some that aren't and that is because they are very faithful and they are in families who talk with their kids.
I'm not sure there's an Orthodox consensus that one should prefer unsafe to safe sex as if the former is somehow less sinful than the latter. I've discussed this with several rather conservative priests and have never gotten instruction or advice that suggests kids, should they choose to have sex, would be better off spiritually if it made alowancw for unobstructed procreation.
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