Mormon Quotes

Abortion

Brigham Young
To check the increase of our race has its advocates among the influential and powerful circles of society in our nation and in other nations. The same practice existed forty‑five years ago, and various devices were used by married persons to prevent the expenses and responsibilities of a family of children, which they must have incurred had they suffered nature's laws to rule pre‑eminent. That which was practised then in fear and against reproving conscience, is now boldly trumpeted abroad as one of the best means of ameliorating the miseries and sorrows of humanity. Infanticide is very prevalent in our nation. It is a crime that comes within the purview of the law, and is therefore not so boldly practised as is the other equally great crime, which, no doubt, to a great extent, prevents the necessity of infanticide. The unnatural style of living, the extensive use of narcotics, the attempts to destroy and dry up the fountains of life, are fast destroying the American element of the nation; it is passing away before the increase of the more healthy, robust, honest, and less sinful class of the people which are pouring into the country daily from the Old World. The wife of the servant man is the mother of eight or ten healthy children, while the wife of his master is the mother of one or two poor, sickly children, devoid of vitality and constitution, and, if daughters, unfit, in their turn, to be mothers, and the health and vitality which nature has denied them through the irregularities of their parents are not repaired in the least by their education.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 12:120
Joseph Fielding Smith
It is just as much murder to destroy life before as it is after birth, although man‑made laws may not so consider it; but there is One who does take notice and his justice and judgment are sure.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Relief Society Magazine, v. 3, no. 7, July 1916
Joseph Fielding Smith
Those who attempt to pervert the ways of the Lord, and to prevent their offspring from coming into the world in obedience to this great command, are guilty of one of the most heinous crimes in the category. There is no promise of eternal salvation and exaltation for such as they, for by their acts they prove their unworthiness for exaltation and unfitness for a kingdom where the crowning glory is the continuation of the family union and eternal increase which have been promised to all those who obey the law of the Lord.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Relief Society Magazine, v. 3, no. 7, July 1916
Spencer W. Kimball
There is such a close relationship between the taking of a life and the taking of an embryonic child, between murder and abortion, that we would hope that mortal men would not presume to take the frightening responsibility....
Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 1982, p. 188
Spencer W. Kimball
Among the most common sexual sins our young people commit are necking and petting. Not only do these improper relations often lead to fornication, pregnancy, and abortions — all ugly sins — but in and of themselves they are pernicious evils...
Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 65
Spencer W. Kimball
Many good people, being influenced by the bold spirit of the times, are now seeking surgery for the wife or the husband so they may avoid pregnancies and comply with the strident voice demanding a reduction of children. It was never easy to bear and rear children, but easy things do not make for growth and development. But loud, blatant voices today shout 'fewer children' and offer the Pill, drugs, surgery, and even ugly abortion to accomplish that. Strange the proponents of depopulating the world seem never to have thought of continence!
Spencer W. Kimball, Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, April 1971, p. 7
Ezra Taft Benson
You who submit yourselves to an abortion or to an operation that precludes you from safely having additional healthy children are jeopardizing your exaltation and your future membership in the kingdom of God.
Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 1988, p. 541
Ezra Taft Benson
We oppose and abhor the damnable practice of wholesale abortion and every other unholy and impure act which strikes at the very foundation of the home and family, our most basic institutions.
Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pp. 539
Gordon B. Hinckley
Abortion is an ugly thing, a debasing thing, a thing which inevitably brings remorse and sorrow and regret.
Gordon B. Hinckley, "What are people asking about us?," Ensign magazine, 1998‑NOV, Page 70
Gordon B. Hinckley
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there were more than 1,200,000 abortions performed in 1995 in the United States alone. What has happened to our regard for human life? How can women, and men, deny the great and precious gift of life, which is divine in its origin and nature? Abortion is an ugly thing, a debasing thing, a thing which inevitably brings remorse and sorrow and regret.
Gordon B. Hinckley, General Conference, October 1998
Mark E. Petersen
In this birth control effort man places himself in direct opposition to the plan and laws of God. The Almighty made this world, and He made us. All human beings are His children, His spirit offspring, and it is His intention to provide each one of us with a body of flesh and bones. This body is essential to eternal progress. With this in mind He gives us the powers of procreation and permits us to join with Him in a divinely sponsored act. But by preventing or aborting legitimate births, we oppose this plan. His spirit children are born into bodies of flesh and bones by His own design. Then who are we to prevent it?
Mark E. Petersen, Apostle Mark E. Peterson, The Way to Peace, p. 266
Boyd K. Packer
Except where the wicked crime of incest or rape was involved, or where competent medical authorities certify that the life of the mother is in jeopardy, or that a severely defective fetus cannot survive birth, abortion is clearly a 'thou shalt not.' Even in these very exceptional cases, much sober prayer is required to make the right choice.
Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report, October 1990, p. 108
Boyd K. Packer
In or out of marriage, abortion is not an individual choice. At a minimum, three lives are involved.
Boyd K. Packer, Apostle Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report, October 1990, p. 108
Dallin H. Oaks
The Church opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience. Our members are taught that, subject only to some very rare exceptions, they must not submit to, perform, encourage, pay for, or arrange for an abortion. That direction tells us what we need to do on the weightier matters of the law, the choices that will move us toward eternal life.
Dallin H. Oaks, "Weightier Matters," speech at Brigham Young University
First Presidency
Members of the Church guilty of being parties to the sin of abortion must be subjected to the disciplinary action of the councils of the Church as circumstances warrant. In dealing with this serious matter, it would be well to keep in mind the word of the Lord stated in the 59th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 6, 'Thou shalt not steal; neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it'.
First Presidency, Harold B. Lee, N. Eldon Tanner, & Marion G. Romney of the First Presidency, statement of 1973
First Presidency
The Church opposes abortion and counsels its members not to submit to or perform an abortion except in the rare cases where, in the opinion of competent medical counsel, the life or good health of the mother is seriously endangered or where the pregnancy was caused by rape and produces serious emotional trauma in the mother. Even then it should be done only after counseling with the local presiding priesthood authority and after receiving divine confirmation through prayer.
First Presidency, First Presidency (Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner, Marion G. Romney), Priesthood Bulletin, Feb. 1973, p. 1‑2
First Presidency
Abortion must be considered one of the most revolting and sinful practices in this day, when we are witnessing the frightening evidence of permissiveness leading to sexual immorality.
First Presidency, Harold B. Lee, N. Eldon Tanner, & Marion G. Romney of the First Presidency, statement of 1973
Erastus Snow
The Latter‑day Saints do not imitate the examples of the Eastern cities and the old commonwealths of the Atlantic seaboard in destroying their offspring. They do not patronize the vendor of noxious, poisonous, destructive medicines to procure abortion, infanticide; child murder, and other wicked devices, whereby to check the multiplication of their species, in order to facilitate the gratification of fleshly lust. We are not disposed to imitate these examples, nor to drink in the pernicious doctrine once uttered in Plymouth Church by the noted Henry Ward Beecher‑‑that it was a positive evil to increase families in the land beyond a limited extent, and the ability of the parents to properly educate and maintain them, sustaining the idea of small families; in effect, justifying the mothers‑‑the unnatural mothers‑‑of New England, and their partners who sanction their efforts in destroying their own offspring, and in preventing the fecundity of the race. Fancy such a doctrine justified by the noted orator of the nineteenth century, and re‑echoed by the smaller fry throughout the country! The Latter‑day Saints are taught to reverence the words of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, concerning the multiplication of their species, and are called as His children to multiply and replenish the earth.
Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses 25:110
Janice Graham
In the 1940s C. S. Lewis, in his essay "We Have No 'Right' to Happiness,'" (God in the Dock) discusses this societal trend, adding, "Our sexual impulses are thus being put in a position of preposterous privilege. The sexual motive is taken to condone all sorts of behaviour which, if it had any other end in view, would be condemned as merciless, treacherous and unjust." He is right. If our society did not embrace irresponsible sexual freedom as happiness, but rather the pursuit of classic family life as happiness, a "gay" man's abandonment of his wife and children, an adulterous woman's convenience abortion, a public school teaching children that homosexuality is normal and having a father who objects arrested, a little boy being encouraged by the adults around him to dress and act as a girl in preparation for hormones and surgeries that will confuse and mutilate his healthy young body, and many other behaviors, would not be condoned as they now are, but summarily condemned as merciless, treacherous, and unjust.
Janice Graham, Standard of Liberty ‑ Stephen Graham and Janice Graham, The Pursuit of Happiness and the Fatal Principle
Janice Graham
Our Declaration of Independence says that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But should people have a right to pursue their personal idea of happiness by any and every means? Of course not. Our society has all kinds of restrictions and outlaws a number of behaviors such as rape, murder, stealing, etc. The writers of the Declaration on which our country is founded meant that all people have the right to pursue happiness by lawful and moral means. [...] Increasingly, since the 1920s, the original meaning of the pursuit of happiness has been redefined, even high‑jacked, to include unlimited sexuality, the opposite of virtuous family life. We've seen how co‑habitation, out‑of wedlock pregnancy, divorce, abortion, homosexuality and the like, have become de‑stigmatized, then championed, all in the name of individual sexual freedom, fulfillment, or happiness.
Janice Graham, Standard of Liberty ‑ Stephen Graham and Janice Graham
Janice Graham
It's incredible to us at SoL that even those with resources, influence, and obligation avoid this topic like the plague. Many of our seemingly most moral and conservative leaders no longer take a stand on issues of sexual morality. They, quite irresponsibly, turn a blind eye to the tragic consequences for a society bent on sex, sex, and more sex. As a result, Lewis's prediction is coming true. To its detriment, as our society has settled on pushing and celebrating unlimited sexuality it has had no trouble pushing and celebrating every other preposterous entitlement men arbitrarily claim from society as a right: a "right" to marriage, a "right" to be a parent, a "right" to destroy the unborn, a "right" to own a house, a "right" to have a job, a "right" to free health care, a "right" for foreigners to break America's laws, and the list goes on. So much for the sense of personal responsibility needed to pursue real happiness.
Janice Graham, Standard of Liberty ‑ Stephen Graham and Janice Graham, The Pursuit of Happiness and the Fatal Principle
Bryan Waterman
The student protest came in response to morning headlines announcing the firings of two controversial but popular faculty members: Cecilia Konchar Farr, an English professor who had reportedly upset church leaders and much of the BYU community with her public pro‑choice activism, and David Knowlton, an anthropology professor specializing in Latin American studies, who had critiqued the LDS church's American image in South America, pointing out reasons the church's full‑time proselytizing missionaries—most of whom come from the United States—were common targets for terrorists.
Bryan Waterman, The Lord's University: Freedom and Authority at BYU, December 15, 1998
© 2011