United Methodist Church Drops Pro-Choice Support

The United Methodist Church concluded their quadrennial general conference this past weekend in Portland, Oregon. At their meeting, the delegates overturned a 40-year policy which supported the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

The pro-choice resolution was adopted in 1976 and placed in the Book of Resolutions which the church called, "Responsible Parenting."

The resolution to continue support for the pro-choice doctrine was defeated in a 445 to 310 vote on Saturday. The Methodist Church also voted the denomination from a pro-choice interfaith group that it co-founded in 1973, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

The conference adopted various other pro-life resolutions including a condemnation of sex-selective abortions and describing abortion as "violent."

According to the Pew Research Center, Methodists are less likely to support abortion than their other mainline protestant counterparts with 58 percent of respondents who support legal abortion in all or most cases as opposed to the Presbyterian Church in the United States at 65 percent and the Episcopal Church in America at 79 percent.