{"id":12697,"date":"2016-06-21T09:55:32","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T14:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/where-major-religious-groups-stand-on-abortion\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:17:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:17:52","slug":"where-major-religious-groups-stand-on-abortion","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2016\/06\/21\/where-major-religious-groups-stand-on-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Where major religious groups stand on abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Major<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Abortion is still a difficult, contentious and even unresolved issue for some religious groups.<\/p>\n\n

The United Methodist Church provides one example of a religious group whose stand on abortion is not entirely clear. At its quadrennial convention, held in May, church delegates voted<\/a> to repeal a 40-year-old resolution supporting the Supreme Court\u2019s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and approved another resolution ending the church\u2019s membership in a pro-abortion rights advocacy group. However, the church\u2019s Book of Discipline<\/a> (which lays out the denomination\u2019s law and doctrine) stresses that abortion should be, in some cases, legally available.<\/p>\n\n

Some religious groups have little or no ambivalence about abortion. For instance, the nation\u2019s largest denomination \u2013 the Roman Catholic Church<\/a> \u2013 opposes abortion in all <\/em>circumstances. The second-largest church, the Southern Baptist Convention<\/a>, also opposes abortion, although it does allow an exception in cases where the mother\u2019s life is in danger.<\/p>\n\n

Other sizable religious groups in opposition to abortion with few or no exceptions include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> (Mormons) and the Assemblies of God<\/a>, the largest U.S. Pentecostal denomination. Hindu teaching<\/a> also is generally opposed to abortion.<\/p>\n\n

On the other side of the debate, a number of religious groups, including the United Church of Christ<\/a>, the Unitarian Universalist Association<\/a> and the two largest American Jewish movements \u2013 Reform<\/a> and Conservative<\/a> Judaism \u2013 favor a woman\u2019s right to have an abortion with few or no exceptions.<\/p>\n\n

Many of the nation\u2019s largest mainline Protestant denominations \u2013 including the Episcopal Church<\/a>, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)<\/a> and the Methodists \u2013 also support abortion rights, although several of these churches temper this support with the call for some limits on when a woman can terminate her pregnancy. For instance, while the Episcopal Church opposes statutory limits on abortion, it teaches that \u201cit should be used only in extreme situations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

There are several religious groups that have no public position on abortion. For instance, in Islam<\/a>, which lacks a single organizational authority, there are a range of views among scholars about when life begins and thus when abortion is morally acceptable. Similarly, in Orthodox Judaism<\/a> there is disagreement among rabbis and scholars about the issue. And for the National Baptist Convention, a historically black Protestant denomination in the U.S., church policy is to allow each individual congregation to determine its views on abortion.<\/p>\n\n

Even when a religious institution has a clearly stated policy on abortion, church members may not always agree. For instance, roughly half of all U.S. Catholics (48%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, in spite of the Catholic Church\u2019s strong opposition.<\/p>\n\n

(To explore the views of members of many other religious groups on abortion, see our interactive website featuring data from the 2014 Religious Landscape Study<\/a>.)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abortion is still a difficult, contentious and even unresolved issue for some religious groups. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[94,161,164,172],"bylines":[930],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-12697","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-abortion","category-beliefs-practices","category-religion-abortion","category-religion-politics-1","bylines-david-masci","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":463,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2016\/06\/21\/where-major-religious-groups-stand-on-abortion\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":23701,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":23701,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":23701,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":23701,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":23701,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png?w=640&h=364&crop=1","width":640,"height":364,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":23701,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/06\/FT_16.06.22_churchAbortion.png?w=640&h=364&crop=1","width":640,"height":364,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Where major religious groups stand on abortion","description":"Abortion is still a difficult, contentious and even unresolved issue for some religious groups.","og_title":"Where major religious groups stand on abortion","og_description":"Abortion is still a difficult, contentious and even unresolved issue for some religious groups. 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