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News
& Links > Baker
RMC pastor on forefront of abortion
By Melinda Williams
Davis County Clipper
BOUNTIFUL — “Abortion is not an issue
of the religious right, but the (religious) right has sloganized it
and demonized a very difficult
decision.”
Bountiful Community Church’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Russell Baker
shared his thoughts last week, on the recent 40th anniversary celebration
of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, held at Judson Memorial
Church in New York City.
Baker, a member of the consultation service in the mid-1970s, returned
to New York last month to mark the anniversary of the organization, “formed
in 1967 by 19 (Protestant) ministers and two rabbis, who were aghast
at the number of women who died of illegal abortions.
Abortions weren’t legal nationally until the U.S. Supreme Court
handed down Roe v Wade in 1971. New York State had legalized them in
1970.
Baker was not part of that initial group, but joined the consultation
service later, and at the anniversary celebration, he was the youngest
clergy person attending who had been a part of it. He served the service
from 1971-73 in Chicago.
Baker explained the Clergy Consultation service was formed so women could
talk about their unwanted pregnancies and get referrals for abortions,
if that was their decision. “We were not advocates either way.
We were not judgmental,” Baker said, “We were there to assist
them in their choice.”
And the members of the CCS believed a woman should have a choice in their
pregnancies.
“
The consultation service was formed because we believed women had the
right to act as moral beings and to make decisions for themselves,” Baker
said.
Most of the women he counseled were married and had multiple children. “They
couldn’t go through another pregnancy,” he said. “They
all came to the hard choice after much soul-searching.”
Baker said clergy involved in the service brought the problem of deaths
caused by illegal abortion to the front and center of the political scene.
During a worship service held at Judson Memorial Church, during the anniversary,
Howard Moody, one of the initial founders of the service noted that in
the early days of the service (prior to Roe v Wade) women were dependent
upon men to help them find safe abortions, and that fell to the clergy
to assist, Baker said. Now, women have achieved the status of taking
control of their lives, “but women couldn’t have done it
without them (the clergy).”
Baker said there remains collusion of many who “wish to deny women
their full citizenship. But it’s important to say there’s
another side to the issue.”
Baker said it’s important that the dialogue on the abortion issue
not be left to the sloganeers, but “to reaffirm the decisions women
make, they make with a great deal of thought.”
Article by Melinda Williams originally run in
Davis County Clipper on May 31, 2007
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