The Mormon church has no official pro-life / pro-choice position or policy. Like many other faiths, the Mormon church believes that abortion should be avoided at all costs with room made for certain exceptions. These exceptions stem from pregnancies resulting from cases of rape or incest.
Additionally, pregnancies where the life or health of the mother is of significant concern or danger, abortion may be a viable option. This can also include significant metal illness or unreasonable mental health burdens.
Though an alarmingly common practice, abortions in the case of congenital malformation have been pronounced completely unacceptable except in the bounds of the other exceptions previously noted.
Under no circumstance does the church suggest or encourage abortion, instead leaving this difficult decision to the woman, her prayers, and the solemn council of her local priesthood leadership.
Some in the church say that the LDS (Mormon) faith is technically pro-choice, as they do, rarely, permit abortions to occur under these certain exceptions. This is false. The church does not subscribe to these polarizing labels.
The official position of the Mormon church on abortion:
“Human life is a sacred gift from God. Elective abortion for personal or social convenience is contrary to the will and the commandments of God. Church members who submit to, perform, encourage, pay for, or arrange for such abortions may lose their membership in the Church.”
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Elder Russel M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles provides us this council, in terms of our view on abortion, when the preceding exceptions do not apply:
This matters greatly to us because the Lord has repeatedly declared this divine imperative: “Thou shalt not kill.” Then He added, “Nor do anything like unto it.” Even before the fulness of the gospel was restored, enlightened individuals understood the sanctity of human life. John Calvin, a sixteenth-century reformer, wrote, “If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, … it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.”
Man-made rules have now legalized that which has been forbidden by God from the dawn of time! Human reasoning has twisted and transformed absolute truth into sound-bite slogans that promote a practice that is consummately wrong.
- Abortion: An Assault on the Defensesless” – October 2008
Adoption is the de facto council given to pregnant women who are seeking an abortion. For those couple who are not married who conceive a child, the church strongly pushes towards building a successful marriage together.