WHEREAS, All people are commanded by God to love their neighbor as they love themselves, and

WHEREAS, The Scriptures teach that human life begins at conception (Matthew 1:20, Psalm 51:5, Psalm 139:13-15), and

WHEREAS, Each Christian must recognize that abortion is the taking of a human life and is therefore a grievous sin except in the rare instance of it being used to save the mother’s life, therefore,

A. BE IT RESOLVED, That we ask each congregation of our Synod to study this issue, and

B. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That our Evangelical Lutheran Synod encourage its congregational members to confess publicly that the unborn child is a living person whose right to live must be protected.

(This statement was adopted by the synod convention of June 1978.)