Southern Baptist Convention Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Abortion ==== Like other conservative evangelical denominations, the Southern Baptist position on [[Abortion in the United States|abortion]] has changed significantly over time, evolving from general acceptance to opposition.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":16" /><ref name=":17" /> In 1971, the SBC passed a resolution urging a loosening of abortion laws in the United States, stating:<ref name=":16" /><blockquote>Be it further resolved, that we call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.</blockquote>In 1973, a "poll conducted by the ''[[Baptist General Convention of Texas|Baptist Standard]]'' news journal found that 90 percent of Texas Baptists believed their state's abortion laws were too restrictive".<ref name=":14" /> During this era, a majority of Southern Baptists, including conservatives within the denomination, supported the expansion of [[Abortion-rights movements|abortion rights]], seeing it as a matter of [[Freedom of religion|religious liberty]], what they saw [[Christianity and abortion|as a lack]] of [[Christianity and abortion|biblical condemnation]], and belief in [[Anti-statism|non-intrusive government]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Balmer |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Balmer |date=August 30, 2021 |title=The Evangelical Abortion Myth: An Excerpt from 'Bad Faith' |url=https://religiondispatches.org/the-evangelical-abortion-myth-an-excerpt-from-bad-faith/ |access-date=2023-04-07 |website=Religion Dispatches |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Williams-2015">{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Daniel K. |date=June 2015 |title=The Partisan Trajectory of the American Pro-Life Movement: How a Liberal Catholic Campaign Became a Conservative Evangelical Cause |journal=Religions |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=451β475 |doi=10.3390/rel6020451 |issn=2077-1444 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Daniel K. |date=2022-05-09 |title=This Really Is a Different Pro-Life Movement |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/south-abortion-pro-life-protestants-catholics/629779/ |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Halpern |first=Sue |date=November 8, 2018 |title=How Republicans Became Anti-Choice |language=en |work=[[The New York Review of Books]] |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/how-republicans-became-anti-choice/ |access-date=2023-04-14 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> Initial reaction among Southern Baptists and evangelicals to the ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' decision was one of support or indifference; they overwhelmingly viewed [[United States anti-abortion movement|anti-abortion movements]] as a [[Sectarianism|sectarian]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] concern. By the mid-1970s, this began to change, as political strategists sought to use the issue of abortion as a [[Policy|political tactic]] to incorporate [[Traditionalist Catholicism|traditionalist Catholics]] together with Southern evangelicals in order to prevent [[Segregation academy|segregation academies]] from being [[Racial integration|racially integrated]]. Southern Baptist opinion on abortion began to substantially change against abortion in subsequent years.<ref name=":16" /><ref name="Williams-2015" /> Today, the SBC strongly opposes abortion.<ref name=":16" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page