The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the United States, voted on Wednesday to oppose the use of in vitro fertilization.
The resolution on IVF, approved at the convention’s annual gathering, says that Southern Baptists should “reaffirm the unconditional value and right to life of every human being,” including embryos, and use only “reproductive technologies consistent with that affirmation.”
Kate Shellnutt, who is covering the Southern Baptists’ gathering for Christianity Today, noted on X that the resolution’s approval came over the objection of some conference attendees who used IVF to conceive.
“Despite opposition from parents who have used IVF, the convention approves the resolution,” Shellnutt tweeted.
Wednesday’s decision by the Southern Baptist Convention confirms that the procedure is now caught up in a broader debate over abortion.
Conservatives, including religious conservatives, increasingly oppose not just abortion but the death of embryos created in a lab, as The New York Times reported.
“The vote was an indication that ordinary evangelicals are increasingly open to arguments that equate embryos with human life, and that two years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ‘fetal personhood’ may be the next front for the anti-abortion movement,” the article said.
The Southern Baptist Convention is not the first religious body to speak out against IVF.
The Catholic Church has long condemned the procedure, and Pope Francis also recently spoke about his opposition to surrogacy, which is done using IVF.
“I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally,” the pope said, as the Deseret News previously reported.