What to Know About the Southern Baptists’ Vote Opposing I.V.F.

Southern Baptists, the country’s largest denomination of Protestant Christians, voted at an annual gathering on Wednesday to oppose the use of in vitro fertilization.

The decision was a momentous one for the convention, which has long wrestled over questions about when personhood begins, and which includes many families who have pursued, or plan to pursue, I.V.F. treatments.

More than 10,000 delegates gathered in Indianapolis for the annual meeting, which is closely watched every year as a barometer of evangelical sentiment. Preceding the vote on in vitro fertilization — a hotly contested issue at the crossroads of science, religion, politics and family planning — were emotional testimonies from congregants of varying viewpoints.

Here are some questions and answers about the vote, and what it could mean.

What, exactly, did the Southern Baptists vote to do?

Wednesday’s vote was the first time that attendees at the Southern Baptist meeting have addressed the ethics of in vitro fertilization directly. Their resolution is not a ban and will have no binding effect on families pursuing fertility treatments.

Instead, the resolution calls on Southern Baptists “to reaffirm the unconditional value and right to life of every human being, including those in an embryonic stage, and to only utilize reproductive technologies consistent with that affirmation, especially in the number of embryos generated in the I.V.F. process.”

In vitro fertilization, which involves fertilizing eggs with sperm in a medical setting and then placing one or more of those embryos into the womb, often results in the destruction of unused embryos, a major reason some evangelicals oppose it.