New SDA statement on abortion.

[Soli Deo Gloria]

A group of scholars met to review the church position on abortion.

Here is the statement. 

https://news.adventist.org/fileadmin/news.adventist.org/files/news/2019/Abortion_Statement_Rev_100119d.pdf

This is encouraging progress. This statement should theoretically ban elective abortions in SDA hospitals.
Let’s see if it happens.

Stan

[Raven]

Let's hope so.  Legal language is often just ambiguous enough to allow for loopholes.

And, as one of my doctor friends has pointed out on numerous occasions, the "life of the mother" argument is a red herring, since when the mother's life is endangered, the baby is delivered and efforts are made to save both lives.

[newbie]

if they can't stop, then at least let's take our name off

[Listen]

Peter Landless and his Health Ministry associates will be writing protocol for hospitals.  It is to be done by the first of 2020.   Am not sure if the SDA church has any real control over any of the hospitals. 

[Soli Deo Gloria]

What seems to be new in the statement posted above, is that it declares that an unborn child is a human being created in the image of God.
Kevin Paulson and Dennis Priebe have tried to justify abortion on the basis that a fetus doesn’t become human until it takes its first breath. 
If it is a human being, then abortion is murder. There can then be no justification for abortion on demand for monetary or any other reasons. 

I have heard that GC division presidents are on the boards of most SDA hospitals. If this is the case, then they would have control. 

[Raven]

Kevin Paulson and Dennis Priebe have tried to justify abortion on the basis that a fetus doesn’t become human until it takes its first breath. 

Which is utter nonsense, since the "breath of life" has nothing to do with breathing.  It is the life principle, and exists the minute an egg is fertilized.  Babies breathe from the first seconds of life, or they would die very quickly.  To claim that a baby isn't human seconds before it exits the birth canal, but that it is human once it does, is both unscientific, and unsupportable from Scripture.  And  would it still not be human if the umbilical cord had  not yet been cut?  The lengths to which otherwise sane and intelligent people will go to defend such barbarism, is astounding.

[Listen]

Kevin Paulson and Dennis Priebe have tried to justify abortion on the basis that a fetus doesn’t become human until it takes its first breath.

Where do you find the statements by Paulson and Priebe saying that about the fetus?
I have read and listened to them and never heard them say anything like you are saying.  Kevin has said that it is a personal choice and not specifically forbidden by the Bible or EGW .
This is the only statement I can easily find from Dennis "(Now I want to make clear that Adventism is opposed to abortion on demand as a birth control option.)"

[Raven]

I hope Stan will provide his sources, but I know there are Adventists to make the claim that a baby is not human until it takes its first breath.  They're stumbling over the word "breath."  "Breath of life" is a metaphor, a symbol, if you will, of the life principle.

Any good biology student, especially one who has studied a bit of embryology, knows that "breathing" begins the moment a baby is conceived.  An embryo is just as dependent upon oxygen as you and I are.  And unless they had the "breath of life," that God-given life principle, they could not breathe, whether via the umbilical cord, or through the nose.

[Soli Deo Gloria]

Here is a YouTube presentation refuting Paulson position on abortion.  This is well documented by Andrew on this video. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aZHv4mh5g4Q

[Soli Deo Gloria]

And Paulson is also wrong about what EGW taught:



“Few are aware of the fearful extent to which this nefarious business, this worse than devilish practice, is carried on in all classes of society! Many a woman determines that she will not become a mother, and subjects herself to the vilest treatment, committing the basest crime to carry out her purpose. And many a man, who has ‘as many children as he can support.’ instead of restraining his passions, aids in the destruction of the babes he has begotten. A Solemn Appeal, Ellen White 100.2

“The sin lies at the door of both parents in equal measure; for the father, although he may not always aid in the murder, is always accessory to it, in that he induces, and sometimes even forces upon the mother the condition which he knows will lead to the commission of this crime. A Solemn Appeal, 100.3
—————
My memory serves me that Kevin Paulson came on this forum with a vigorous defense of the right to abortion.
That thread is no longer available. 

[Soli Deo Gloria]

The good news is that apparently the Autumn Council did vote to affirm the pro life position outlined above.
Doug Batchelor tweeted out   “Praise God, the SDA church is now pro life”

[newbie]

at the moment of conception the cell now has 46 chromosomes.... that can only be human

[Listen]

I have read a lot of Paulson's comments about abortion and don't agree with him but had not seen him say that about first breath.  Andrew's video said that Kevin only said it to him in a phone call.  What I remember about a lot of Kevin's comments that they were addressing making abortion illegal through government legislation.  He talked about it being a religious liberty issue.  That christians should not impose their standards on non-christians.  I read Kevin's statement on abortion and don't agree with it. 

Now on to Dennis Priebe.  Where has he made a statement on abortion and the unborn not being human until first breath?

[Soli Deo Gloria]

I have read a lot of Paulson's comments about abortion and don't agree with him but had not seen him say that about first breath.  Andrew's video said that Kevin only said it to him in a phone call.  What I remember about a lot of Kevin's comments that they were addressing making abortion illegal through government legislation.  He talked about it being a religious liberty issue.  That christians should not impose their standards on non-christians.  I read Kevin's statement on abortion and don't agree with it. 

Now on to Dennis Priebe.  Where has he made a statement on abortion and the unborn not being human until first breath?

I cannot prove that Priebe said this, but his close association with Paulson makes him suspect.
What Paulson said is indefensible.

[Listen]

I cannot prove that Priebe said this, but his close association with Paulson makes him suspect.

Guilt by association.   

How closely are they associated?

Even husbands and wives can have different opinions.