Congress' postponing Thursday's vote on a bill that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy has drawn the ire of conservative faith leaders.
"I am disgusted by this act of moral cowardice. If the House Republicans cannot pass something as basic as restricting the abortion of five-month, pain-capable unborn children, what can they get done?," said Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, in the organization's statement on the situation.
On Wednesday evening, the Associated Press broke the news that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives had postponed the vote that would have taken place on the 42nd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling and when the annual March for Life event takes place in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post reported that the delay of the bill is widely thought to have stemmed from female GOP lawmakers' sense that "the legislation's restrictive language would once again spoil the party's chances of broadening its appeal to women and younger voters."
Some faith leaders were also pleased with Wednesday's decision.
The Rev. Debra Haffner, president of the Religious Institute, tweeted throughout the week about the importance of upholding Roe v. Wade protections for a woman's right to have an abortion. On Wednesday night, she added "Great news. See, gender matters," to the AP's announcement that the House GOP would drop its abortion bill.
The opposing responses reflect what the Pew Research Center reported in July 2013 on the varying views on abortion among religious Americans.
White evangelical Protestants lead the pack on the anti-abortion stance, with 64 percent of the group believing the procedure should be illegal in all or most cases. Jewish Americans are the strongest supporters of abortion rights, with 89 percent saying it should be a legal right for women.
And the variation is not limited to comparisons between denominations. Pew also found extreme differences of opinion within faith groups. For instance, more than 3-in-10 (31 percent) evangelicals reported that abortion rights should be broadly protected under the law.
In a column for Religion News Service, Jacob Lupfer noted that these shades of gray are often ignored when bringing religion to the abortion debate.
"While conservative religious activists at the March for Life and progressive religious leaders supporting the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (a national organization of pro-abortion faith leaders) do speak for a subset of the people they purport to represent, the absolutism of polarized activist elites betrays the more ambivalent views of rank-and-file Americans," he wrote.
"I am disgusted by this act of moral cowardice. If the House Republicans cannot pass something as basic as restricting the abortion of five-month, pain-capable unborn children, what can they get done?," said Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, in the organization's statement on the situation.
On Wednesday evening, the Associated Press broke the news that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives had postponed the vote that would have taken place on the 42nd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling and when the annual March for Life event takes place in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post reported that the delay of the bill is widely thought to have stemmed from female GOP lawmakers' sense that "the legislation's restrictive language would once again spoil the party's chances of broadening its appeal to women and younger voters."
Some faith leaders were also pleased with Wednesday's decision.
The Rev. Debra Haffner, president of the Religious Institute, tweeted throughout the week about the importance of upholding Roe v. Wade protections for a woman's right to have an abortion. On Wednesday night, she added "Great news. See, gender matters," to the AP's announcement that the House GOP would drop its abortion bill.
The opposing responses reflect what the Pew Research Center reported in July 2013 on the varying views on abortion among religious Americans.
White evangelical Protestants lead the pack on the anti-abortion stance, with 64 percent of the group believing the procedure should be illegal in all or most cases. Jewish Americans are the strongest supporters of abortion rights, with 89 percent saying it should be a legal right for women.
And the variation is not limited to comparisons between denominations. Pew also found extreme differences of opinion within faith groups. For instance, more than 3-in-10 (31 percent) evangelicals reported that abortion rights should be broadly protected under the law.
In a column for Religion News Service, Jacob Lupfer noted that these shades of gray are often ignored when bringing religion to the abortion debate.
"While conservative religious activists at the March for Life and progressive religious leaders supporting the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (a national organization of pro-abortion faith leaders) do speak for a subset of the people they purport to represent, the absolutism of polarized activist elites betrays the more ambivalent views of rank-and-file Americans," he wrote.