By MaryAnn Conway // EEW Magazine Online

At the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Indianapolis, delegates voted to oppose in vitro fertilization (IVF), a decision that sparked strong reactions, including from former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Bottoms, 54, questioned what this resolution means for “families created through IVF.”

The resolution calls on Southern Baptist members to “advocate for the government to restrain actions inconsistent with the dignity and value of every human being, which necessarily includes frozen embryonic human beings.”

It criticizes IVF for "routinely generating more embryos than can be safely implanted, thus resulting in the continued freezing, stockpiling, and ultimate destruction of human embryos, some of whom may also be subjected to medical experimentation."

Bottoms, who grew up Baptist, shared her thoughts on X, formerly Twitter: “I grew up in a southern Missionary Baptist Church where people prayed for those who were experiencing infertility, not condemn them.”

She added, “We were taught that God answers prayers in many ways, sometimes through miracles and other times through doctors and medical treatments.”

Bottoms, an attorney, believes that God works through IVF despite its controversy.

Jason Thacker, an adviser to the Southern Baptist Resolutions Committee, explained the stance at a news conference: “We believe that life begins at fertilization and is to be honored and cherished and protected at all stages, no matter the stage of development, nor location.”

The resolution argues that “though all children are to be fully respected and protected, not all technological means of assisting human reproduction are equally God-honoring or morally justified.”

Bottoms expressed concern for families who may feel shamed by the country’s largest Protestant denomination’s anti-IVF stance. “Does this mean the families created through IVF are now shunned by Southern Baptists?” she asked. “I understand the difference in church organizations, but it is still one faith. Make it make sense.”

While the resolution expresses grief for couples experiencing infertility, it encourages members to “promote adoption” and consider “adopting frozen embryos in order to rescue those who are eventually to be destroyed.”

IVF, as defined by the Cleveland Clinic, is a fertility treatment where eggs are combined with sperm in a lab outside the body. This method, used by people needing help to achieve pregnancy, involves many complex steps and is an effective form of assisted reproductive technology (ART).

The Southern Baptists' resolution comes at a time when reproductive rights are a significant campaign issue for Democrats ahead of the Nov. 5 elections, the first presidential election since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion in 2022.

Since then, most Republican-led states have moved to quickly outlaw or severely limit the procedure.