WHEREAS, The Southern Baptist Convention has consistently and overwhelmingly adopted resolutions affirming the declarations of Scripture that all human life is a sacred gift from our sovereign God and therefore that all abortions, except in those very rare cases where the life of the mother is clearly in danger, are wrong; and
WHEREAS, A specific technique known as partial-birth abortion is a particularly grisly procedure wherein a doctor uses forceps and hands to deliver an intact baby, feet first, until only the head remains in the birth canal, whereafter the doctor pierces the base of the baby’s skull with surgical scissors, whereafter he or she then inserts a canula into the incision and suctions out the brain of the baby so the head collapses; and
WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States has passed legislation which would make this inhumane procedure, which the American Catholic cardinals have correctly characterized as More akin to infanticide than abortion illegal except to save the life of the mother; and
WHEREAS, The President of the United States vetoed this legislation and offered as justification for his action that he had prayed about the matter and determined that he could not sign the legislation unless it contained an exception for cases where there might be Serious health consequences to the mother and
WHEREAS, The mother’s health exception has been completely discredited as a catch-all loophole which has been demonstrated to include any reason the mother so desires; and
WHEREAS, The Bible is the perfect revelation of God’s will, including His perfect moral will for those whom He has created in His very own image; and
WHEREAS, It is impossible to conclude that God, who is perfect and unchanging in all His attributes, and whose laws are perfect and immutable, would reveal to any person, through prayer, that which is contrary to His Word; and
WHEREAS, Abortion in general, and partial-birth abortion in particular, continues as a blight upon our culture and surely deserves God’s judgment; Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in session June 11-13, 1996, in New Orleans, Louisiana, do commend those members of Congress who voted to support legislation which would have abolished partial-birth abortions; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we express our strong disapproval of the votes of those members of Congress who stood in opposition to this legislation; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we express our strong disapproval of President Clinton’s veto of this legislation; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we express our disapproval of the President’s suggestion that God would reveal to him in prayer that any abortion method, particularly one so barbarous in technique and so cruel in effect, would ever have God’s approval; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we, the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, in a genuine spirit of love do admonish and encourage President Clinton, himself a Southern Baptist, to reverse his shameful decision to veto this legislation and sign it into law; or in the alternative of such failure to reverse his action, we call upon every member of Congress to vote to override the President’s veto; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, That we pray for our nation, upon whom the blight of abortion remains, that we might come to recognize the sanctity of innocent, unborn babies and that we might seek civil justice for these innocent victims of a cruelty so harsh that we are surely accountable for our failure to intervene on their behalf.