NASHVILLE (BP and local reports) – Southern Baptists churches across the country observed the 37th Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on Jan. 16. This year’s observance afforded a special opportunity to pray that a Mississippi case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court will roll back justices’ 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide and has resulted in more than 62,000,000 pre-born infants’ deaths.
Oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization were heard by the court on Dec. 1, in an appeal of the ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans that affirmed the decision by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in Jackson to strike down the Gestational Age Act that prohibited abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The State of Mississippi and many pro-life organizations, including the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) in Nashville, asked the high court not only to uphold the law but also to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made expansive abortion rights legal.
Some Supreme Court observers have said that the Dec. 1 oral arguments offered optimism the justices might grant those requests when an opinion is issued, which is expected this summer.
The annual Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is not limited to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and is held by many pro-life groups across the U.S. in close proximity to the Jan. 22 date of the Roe decision.
“[This] is an incredible opportunity in the SBC to reflect on the importance of the image of God in all persons, especially our preborn neighbors,” said Elizabeth Graham, ERLC vice president of operations and life initiatives.
“It is crucial that, in our convention of churches across the nation, we pray that God would bring a swift end to abortion, and that it would become unthinkable and unnecessary in our day,” she said in written comments. “Let us intercede before the throne of God for those most vulnerable among us this Sunday.”
Messengers to several SBC annual meetings have adopted a series of resolutions affirming the dignity of all human beings because they are made in the image of God. These have included the unborn, disabled, elderly, and other vulnerable people groups.
Many Southern Baptist pastors preach on the sanctity of human life; many churches promote a pro-life ethic and support pregnancy resource centers that seek to persuade pregnant women to forego abortions.
On the basis of its assignment from the convention, the ERLC has advocated strongly since a leadership change in 1988 for the sanctity of unborn babies. In regard to the Dobbs case, the agency filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief asking the high court to reverse Roe.
Thomas Dobbs is State Health Officer for the Mississippi Department of Health. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the sole abortion clinic in the state, located on North State Street in Jackson.
