Defending Human Life

LDS Family Services and Defending the Sanctity of Human Life

“We affirm the sanctity of life and its importance in God’s eternal plan... Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”

The First Presidency of the Church said, “Adoption is an unselfish, loving decision that blesses the child, birth parents, and adoptive parents in this life and throughout the eternities. We commend all those who strengthen children and families by promoting adoption”. With the family being the central unit in God’s plan, it makes sense that the Church would provide a way to create and sustain even more righteous families. The Church is there to support all its members, even when they make mistakes and find themselves in difficult situations.

Joseph F. Smith said, “Every soul is precious in the sight of God…the Lord has placed the responsibility upon all parents in the Church to teach their children in light and truth. He has placed the obligation upon all parents that they must teach the first principles of the Gospel to their children, teach them to pray, and see that they are baptized when they are eight years of age. Parents cannot shirk or neglect this great responsibility without incurring the displeasure of a righteous God. He has not relinquished his claim upon his children when they are born into this world and therefore commands parents to teach their offspring so that they may be brought up in the truth of the everlasting Gospel. For parents to fail to do this places them in condemnation and the sin of such neglect will have to be answered with punishment on their own heads. This is the law unto Zion and all of her stakes”.

“When a life is created by sinful behavior, the best way to begin personal repentance is to preserve the life of that child” (Russell M. Nelson).

A statement given by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997 declared, “We deplore the practice of partial-birth abortion which destroys innocent life, and we condemn and oppose it as one of the most revolting and sinful practices of our day. It is abhorrent to God and is fundamentally contrary to his injunction, ‘Thou shalt not kill…nor do anything like unto it (D&C 59:6)”.