March 14 Today in OPC History

On this date in 1972, Great Commission Publications announced that the majority report of the Committee to Study the Matter of Abortion was available in pamphlet form at a cost of 15 cents per pamphlet. The report, written by ministers John Frame and Robert Malarkey, and ruling elder Joseph Memmelaar, had been presented to the Thirty-eighth (1971) General Assembly. In addition to printing the report, that assembly also adopted the following resolution: Unborn children are living creatures in the image of God, given by God as a blessing to their parents. Between conception and birth they are the objects of God’s particular providence and care as they are being prepared by God for the responsibilities and privileges of post- natal life. Scripture obligates us to treat unborn children as human persons in all decisions and actions involving them. They should not, therefore, be destroyed by voluntary abortion in the absence of valid medical grounds demonstrating the necessity of such abortion to save the mother’s life.

Picture: John Frame (left) and Henry Coray in the late 1960s.