Conservative Christians originally welcomed Roe v. Wade as advancing religious liberty

Evidence

Contrary to myth, when the Supreme Court handed down its decision on Roe v. Wade, many secular and religious conservatives responded with delight. Here is what W. Barry Garrett, Washington bureau chief of the Baptist Press, a wire service run by the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote upon the announcement: “Religious liberty, human equality, and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision.” Garrett’s position wasn’t exceptional. The 1971 convention of the Southern Baptists endorsed a resolution calling for the legalization of abortion to preserve the “emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother” as well as in cases of rape, incest, and “deformity.” The convention approved the same resolution after Roe, in 1974, calling it a “middle ground between the extreme of abortion on demand and the opposite extreme of all abortion as murder,” and again in 1976. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 267

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: the manufactured timeline of the anti-abortion movement, showing Roe was embraced by evangelicals for years before becoming a rallying cause.
• XREF: Connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ pattern of moral panics as class/identity signals rather than genuine doctrinal commitments. — connects to: Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 255; Leading evangelicals initially endorsed Roe as a church-state separation victory — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 92; The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 222 (+4 more)
• CANDY: The Southern Baptist Convention endorsed abortion legalization right up to 1976, a completely counterintuitive fact for modern readers.

Broader Connections

• Leading evangelicals initially endorsed Roe as a church-state separation victory #corroborates (0.95) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 92
• Baptist leaders initially framed Roe as a victory for church-state separation #corroborates (0.95) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 94
• A leading Southern Baptist fundamentalist welcomed the Roe decision as correct #corroborates (0.95) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 93
• Falwell did not preach against abortion until five years after Roe #corroborates (0.85) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 96
• The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons #qualifies (0.80) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 222