Every American should ask what changed. What happened in America to make all the Christian churches show support for a woman's access to abortion before the 1980's. They need to ask why groups like Planned Parenthood refused to do abortions before and several years after the 1973 Roe decision. Why was everything about abortion rights the exact opposite of how things are today. The above New York Times article is Proof that the most right wing Christian group in the US at the time, The Southern Baptist Convention not only didn't oppose abortion rights but had a statement in their 1971 platform supporting legislation that protected a women's right to the procedure in most cases. They even reaffirmed it in 1974 a year Roe V. Wade was decided and continued to do so until 1977 when they went quite on the issue for some strange reason.
That clause, as it was adopted by the Southern Baptist in 1971, said: “Be it further resolved that we call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental and physical health of the mother.”
