c. 1996 Religion News Service

(RNS)-Leading figures in the anti-abortion movement have issued a statement outlining their opposition to abortion and challenging Americans to further debate on the divisive issue.”The America We Seek: A Statement of Pro-Life Principle and Concern”appears in the March 25 issue of National Review, a conservative opinion journal.”Our goal is simply stated: we seek an America in which every unborn child is protected in law and welcomed in life,”the statement reads.

It calls the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion”an almost completely unrestricted private license to judge who will live and who will die”and goes on to describe abortion as a major contributor to a moral decline in the United States.”Abortion contributes to the marginalization of fatherhood in America, which many agree is a primary cause of the alarming breakdown of American family life,”it reads.

The five-page statement was signed by 45 educators, religious leaders, policy experts and others. They include the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life; Ralph Reed, Christian Coalition executive director; Glenn Loury, a Boston University professor; Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners; and William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard.

The drafting of the 26-point statement was overseen by George Weigel, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Signers of the document call abortion the”crucial civil-rights issue of our time.””The unborn child in America today enjoys less legal protection than an endangered species of bird in a national forest,”the statement declares.

The document calls for those who oppose abortion to provide more options for women who are considering the procedure. For example, they urge an increase in the number of crisis pregnancy centers that help women carry their pregnancy to term and advocate streamlined legal procedures for adoption.

The writers appeal for a constitutional amendment that would overturn Roe vs. Wade.”The project of constitutional reform on this issue, as on the precedent issues of slavery and segregation, is to bring our legal system into congruence with basic moral truths about the human person,”they write.

The leader of an abortion-rights organization criticized the statement.”It’s kind of a classic regurgitation of everything that has already been said by those who are opposed to abortion,”said Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice.”There’s no doubt in my mind that there is a need … for a more thoughtful exposition of the abortion question in our society. This doesn’t fit the bill.”

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