In late 2002 I spent a year working at an inner-city mission of the Episcopal Church whose primary role in the community was to provide services to undocumented immigrants. I suppose that being a Catholic deacon on the staff made me something of an anomaly, and I was certainly thought of by the mission leadership as merely a mercenary. However, I understood that the vast majority of the clients were Catholic, and for me it was a role of ministry, and not so much just a job.
The point relevant to my post today is that the position at the Episcopal mission brought me into contact with several things that I considered to be strange in terms of my experience of the Christian religion. Overall it was an extraordinarily educational experience working at the mission. In my experiences I grew personally and as a minister of service. I also learned even more that when it comes to doctrine and moral values, there is a world of difference between faith expressions.
During the year that I worked at the mission my co-workers informed me that Planned Parenthood supposedly had Protestant clergy serving in some capacity of oversight. I was never sure about the claim, but it seemed odd at the time. I wondered, if it were true, what the reasons behind it were. Also at the mission I worked closely with a former Catholic priest, still a Catholic but married, who told me that he had been offered a leadership position with Planned Parenthood and had refused it on moral grounds.
So the story I found for today, which I present in excerpts, serves to shed some light on Austin's Planned Parenthood clergy relationship.
Late last year, Rabbi Alan Freedman responded to a counseling request for a woman making an agonizing decision. She was terminating her pregnancy in the 19th week of gestation because of severe fetal deformities.
The woman wasn't Jewish, but she told the staff at the Planned Parenthood clinic in South Austin where she was seeking the abortion that she wanted to talk to a member of the clergy before going through with the procedure. Freedman, the chairman of the clergy panel for Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region, asked the woman to tell him about her baby. Then the two planned a ceremony to memorialize the child before the abortion took place.
"This was the end of a precious life," he said.
Freedman later said it was one of the most challenging experiences he'd faced as a rabbi, but it was exactly how he wanted to help. Already a Planned Parenthood board member, he said he knew he and other religious leaders could provide a much-needed spiritual resource for women.
Though religion often marks the battle lines in the abortion debate, clergy involvement at Planned Parenthood, an institution that has long supported abortion rights, is nothing new. One of the founding board members of Austin's Planned Parenthood in 1938 was Rabbi Abraham Goodman of Congregation Beth Israel, the city's largest synagogue.
The clinic has had a chaplain on staff and has helped organize interfaith renewal services for women struggling with abortions they've had and other issues in their past. Planned Parenthood also is creating an outdoor space for spiritual reflection at the South Austin clinic.
The current seven-member clergy panel, formed about a year and a half ago, includes Protestant ministers and a Buddhist priest — all of whom are available not only to Planned Parenthood clients, but to staff members as well.
On a chilly Friday morning early last month, Freedman delivered the panel's message to a Planned Parenthood staff meeting: "God is a loving and a forgiving God"
....Freedman suggested that the [Planned Parenthood staff] strive to be a "nonanxious presence" for clients and to recognize that if a client needs to hear from the clergy, "it's OK; God loves you and will love you at the end of this."
For many clergy members, abortion is a thorny issue, Freedman said, stressing that no one wants to promote it. And the truth is, he added, "you can never say that it's OK. You don't know that. I don't know that."
Though he has not received complaints from his congregation, Temple Beth Shalom in Northwest Austin, Freedman said that he was not representing his synagogue in his role at Planned Parenthood.
But he said he wants women in crisis who are seeking spiritual help to see God as a loving and forgiving force.
The organization's staff and board include people active in a variety of faith traditions. One Christian staff member wears a cross around her neck and has prayed with patients who request it. She said she's not afraid to talk openly about faith.
"If you get the religious people, send them my way..."
....But the idea of spiritual guidance that does not explicitly dissuade a woman from having an abortion is unthinkable to many religious leaders. Bishop Gregory Aymond, who leads the Catholic Diocese of Austin, said he finds the notion particularly troubling, given the other options available to women facing unplanned pregnancies.
The diocese provides resources for pregnant women through Project Gabriel as well as two maternity homes where women can live and learn life and parenting skills. In addition, the diocese offers a confidential ministry called Project Rachel, which counsels men and women with abortions in their past.
Aymond said that women seeking spiritual guidance about an unplanned pregnancy need to hear about these options as well as understand the church's theological position on the sanctity of life in the womb.
He said he would like Catholic Church leaders to participate in the clergy panel at Planned Parenthood to help women "form their conscience so they can take full responsibility for their decision."
"It's more than just saying, 'God will forgive,'" said Aymond, who noted that he has counseled women before and after abortions.
Though he stressed that he's "radically pro-life," Aymond said he would like to sit down with Planned Parenthood leaders and talk about how the diocese might participate in clergy counseling.
My computer keeps freezing on the link page so I didn't read it all, but so far this is enough to say it's a case of "HOLY abortion, Batman!" Honestly, after 36 years of only increasing adulteration of life and family (in all its stages but especially fetal), is it any wonder that some anti-PP folks (wrongly) take matters into their own hands?
I am not a big believer in dialogue (as also not in violence). It's time to promulgate some real facts of presently-unwelcomed pregnancy, such as "This is no tragedy. You can give up the baby if need be--many are waiting. Woman and man up to these few months just as you did 9 months ago." Also, where are the babies' safe havens for drop-offs?? Why in God's name am I still reading of girls being arrested for dropping off their infants at some non-designated but SAFE site? Where is our infants' Homeland Security?
Posted by: PoorServant | January 23, 2009 at 09:54 AM