Why the Southern Baptists said no to IVF
The Southern Baptist Convention—whose nearly 13 million members make it the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.—is often described as a “barometer" for evangelical sentiments nationwide. Yet last week the convention did something few Christian bodies have done: It adopted a resolution opposing the use of in vitro fertilization. Public debates about IVF and advanced reproductive technology aren’t new.
Yet when the practice emerged in the 1970s, religious institutions often viewed it as a medical marvel that would rarely be needed. Some, like the Catholic Church, developed teachings on the matter within years (in that case, that IVF is unacceptable). Others, like the Southern Baptists, needed to be prodded.
That catalyst finally came in February, when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine that embryos—frozen in repositories or in utero—are legal persons under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. The logic struck many as obvious and unobjectionable: Christians acknowledge that life, which begins at conception, is sacred and must be protected.
Frozen embryos are no exception. Many Southern Baptists were thus surprised when otherwise “pro-life" politicians dissented from the court’s decision. Perhaps most prominent among them was Donald Trump, who urged the Alabama Legislature “to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF." Within days it did so by significant margins, providing blanket immunity to clinics from any civil or criminal liability related to the death or damage of a human embryo.
The tension revealed the need for Christians to rethink the issue. All Christians affirm the moral goodness of procreation. Protestants of a
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