In response to a request from the House of Bishops (February 1988), the Primate reported he had invited Mrs. P. Creighton, Mrs. D. Marshall and Dr. J. Reed to form a Task Force to prepare a contemporary statement regarding abortion.
It was agreed that we, as Christians, must work towards the creation of a society in which every human being is welcome and recognized that we must both work for change of legislation which affects social programming.
Chancellor David Wright stated that difficulties outside the Criminal Code fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces and the federal government can enter the field only through the Criminal Code, but can control processes through funding.
Text
That this National Executive Council:
1. express its heartfelt thanks to the members of the Task Force on Abortion;
2. endorses the report of the Task Force;
3. refers the report to the Primate for appropriate action. CARRIED #65-05-88
Notes
It was agreed that the Primate should send the report to appropriate people in the life of the church and the country.
The Primate, on behalf of the NEC, expressed thanks to Mrs. Creighton, Mrs. Marshall and Dr. Reed for their report.
Toronto hospitals are performing abortions "without restriction," according to a prominent official of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Rev. Arthur Brown, rector of a large Toronto parish and a member of the National Executive Council of General Synod made the charge in connection with deliberations on a forthcoming report by a Task Force on Human Life.
The report is not expected to be completed until the end of 1973 and Father Brown said he and other pastors are impatiently awaiting it for guidance on new and complex moral situations.
He told bishops and other delegates from across Canada to the executive council that "all kinds of girls are going through our hospitals in metropolitan Toronto being aborted of pregnancies." His information, he said, comes from nurses and other hospital staff.
Father Brown claimed that staffs in some Toronto hospitals are aborting without restriction "under the guise of it being good for the total health of the mother."
Five years ago, he said, one Toronto hospital listed 28 abortions. Last year, the number was over 300, "ten times as many, or more."
He said "doctors are compromised by the destruction of human life" in this abortion situation. On becoming doctors, he said, they swear an oath to preserve life but due to the present situation "they are placed in a major compromised situation."
Father Brown said nursing staffs are upset over having to clean up after induced miscarriages and they come to him for guidance.
Archbishop E.W. Scott, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada expressed deep sympathy towards the position described by Father Brown but said the task force's report will take another year due to the complexities of the issues involved.
"It's becoming obvious that people are feeling a need for help in making decisions in these areas," Archbishop Scott said.
"Each case has to be evaluated in terms of the health of the mother and the possible health of the child, and not only on the question of the sanctity of life but also in the area of the quality of life."
Archbishop Scott emphasized that hospital boards deciding abortion cases should include persons representing moral issues as well as medical issues.
Besides abortion, the task force is studying the whole concept of when life begins and ends in relation to euthanasia, transplants, biological engineering and the vast implications of discoveries in biochemistry. Archbishop Scott said the study has become increasingly complex as it delves into the legal, medical, moral and social aspects of life. The task force is composed of lawyers, doctors, research scientists, housewives, social workers, theologians and others. It is also consulting with similarly concerned groups in the United States, Britain and other parts of the world.
A progress report will be presented to the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada at its biennial meeting next May in Regina.
"In the spring of 1980 the subgroup of the Task Force on Human Life responsible for this report was established at the request of the House of Bishops. .... The National Executive Council received and approved this report for publication in May 1982, commending it to the church as a pastoral resource for personal and congregational study. The Task Force on Human Life published `Abortion, an Issue for Conscience' in 1974, and `The Abortion Question' is a further examination of some aspects that have since assumed importance. Abortion remains a serious and complex issue which must be of vital concern to Christians, and I hope this report will assist you in your continuing reflections". -- Foreword.
Report of the Subgroup of the Task Force on Human Life.
Contents: Foreword / Edward W. Scott -- Members of the subgroup of the Task Force on Human Life -- Preface -- Section I : The Abortion Situation in Canada Today -- Section II : Recommendations -- Endnotes.
Mississauga, May 13, 1988 -- The Anglican Church will today [EDITOR: Friday] attempt to define a third choice in the debate on therapeutic abortion.
A task force report to be delivered to the church's national executive council meeting here this afternoon, says: "Too often the abortion debate is couched in terms of a woman's right over her own body as against a foetus's right to life." It suggests the issue may be addressed from a new perspective in which neither the mother nor the foetus is required to serve as "victim."
"Christians hold a spectrum of personal views about the morality of abortion, from utter rejection of it to conviction that it is a personal ethical matter for a woman."
Either approach, the report suggests, is one-sided: either it ignores the cry of the unborn while trying to raise the status of women; or it remains indifferent to the plight of women while trying to protect the unborn.
The task force was convened in March to consider the Anglican Church's stance on abortion in light of the Supreme Court's decision in the Morgentaler case. That decision declared the provisions of the Criminal Code dealing with abortions to be unconstitutional. The church had previously expressed its support for the law.
The 15-page report recommends that the church continue to oppose unregulated access to abortion. The church, it says, sees abortion as "always a tragedy fraught with moral ambiguity...To resort to abortion lightly or casually is to degrade our humanity, to deny the responsibility and responsiveness of human nature."
SEEKING "TRUE" CHOICE
The report spends its greatest energy addressing the circumstances in which women "choose" abortion. In many cases, it says, the choice is hollow: When women choose to abort, it is frequently in coercive, lonely and grief-stricken circumstances where they feel completely unable to bear their child. Often the biggest problem facing the woman is her lack of a real social and economic support system. Many women who choose not to bear their children, then, make their decision out of alienation and hopelessness.
"For us as Christians, such despair cannot be left as the motive force...True choice must involve alternatives to despair."
The report says new legislation to regulate abortion should "establish procedures to make abortion available equitably across the country as a therapeutic measure for women whose pregnancies endanger their life or their physical or mental health." It says counselling should be required.
The report rejects the concept of legislating easy access to early abortion and more restricted access later in the term (after 12 weeks for example): "Abortion is always the taking of a human life and, in our view, should never be done except for serious therapeutic reasons. Any such line is arbitrary and seems to argue that the value of the foetus and the seriousness of abortion in the early stages will be discounted."
ABORTION OR POVERTY TOO OFTEN ONLY CHOICE
Noting that many women have a choice of aborting a foetus or bearing a child to live in poverty, the report urges an extensive program of social action to reduce conditions which make the choice of abortion more likely. It stresses the need for:
* more affordable housing;
* pay equity for women;
* a guaranteed annual income, and other financial measures "to secure the dignity -- indeed the survival -- of mothers and children;"
"J. Gordon Melton, Gary L. Ward, Contributing Editor".
Contents: Preface / J. Gordon Melton -- Introductory Essay: The Historical Context of the Contemporary Abortion Debate -- Statements -- Index to Organizations, Names, and Subjects.
Statements section sub-divided into four main sections: Roman Catholic Church -- Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Churches -- Jewish Groups -- Other Religious Bodies.
Section on Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Churches includes: Episcopal Church: Resolution on Abortion (1967) and Resolution on Abortion (1988) -- National Organization of Episcopalians for Life: Privacy or Life: Which is More Sacred ? (1987) -- United Church of Canada: Resolution on Abortion (1980).
Abortion legislation should protect both the rights of women and the rights and needs of the unborn, the Anglican Church of Canada has said in response to the recently proposed abortion bill.
That this General Synod encourage each diocese to be responsible for sending copies of resolutions passed at General Synod regarding abortion and programs of education on this topic once they are developed, to the various secular agencies involved in counselling of families and young women facing issues of abortion. CARRIED ACT 89
Reprint of the text of remarks given to the YM-YWCA Friday Luncheon Group in Ottawa on 10 March 1995. Professor Ogilvie considers the implications of The Culture of Disbelief by Stephen Carter.
Author begins with a look back to the feelings of fifth century Christians contemplating the fall of Rome and continues: "Against a similar historical backdrop, there is among Christians in Canada a rising tide of apprehension, anger, a sense of betrayal and alarm at the speed with which the formerly Christian fabric of Canadian society has been unravelled within the half-generation since 1982 and certainly within the generation since 1968. It may not be politically correct to observe that the sacking of Christian Canada has been largely accomplished by baptized Christians. Yet the Alarics in our legislatures and on our benches have demonstrated that laws can by as effective as fire and the sword in the destruction of earthly cities, and that persecution and oppression can be equally wrought by psychological as well as physical means". Very conservative in tone and argument.