The U.S. Central Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued an <a href='https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2026/09/18/lds-church-weighs-against-idahos/'>official statement</a> last month opposing the Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, better known as <a href='https://ballotpedia.org/Idaho_Proposition_1,_Reproductive_Freedom_and_Privacy_Act_Initiative_(2026)'>Proposition 1</a>.
The memo was brief. Its signers, all men, did not get into the debates swirling around the ballot measure widely seen as having a decent shot at passing this November. Instead, it read: “Our long-held stance on abortion remains clear and unchanged.”
A few weeks later, the church <a href='https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2026/10/13/lds-church-kicks-1m-fight-idaho/'>cut a check</a> for $1 million to the group opposing the measure.
Official church <a href='https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/general-handbook/38-church-policies-and-guidelines?lang=eng'>policy opposes</a> “elective abortion for personal or social convenience.” However, it has long noted that there are circumstances in which abortion is not a sin. Those include a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, if the “life or health” of the mother is in “serious jeopardy,” and instances when a fetus is found to have “severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.”
Current Idaho law is more restrictive, barring abortion at all stages of pregnancy with an exception for the life of the mother. Survivors of rape and incest who have reported the crime to law enforcement can also seek an abortion during the first trimester.
In contrast, Prop 1 goes, arguably, further in its allowances than church policy, establishing “a right to make private reproductive healthcare decisions, including abortion up to fetal viability and in medical emergencies.”
The result is a Latter-day Saint community <a href='https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2026/09/25/what-lds-women-have-say-about/'>split</a> on the measure, along with heated arguments online and off over what these laws and proposed laws mean for maternal and newborn health.
This week, Heather Pugmire, a Latter-day Saint and OB-GYN, describes her own experience practicing in Idaho and her wrestle with the question of how to vote come Election Day.

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This LDS OB-GYN was ‘100% yes’ on Prop 1 — until her church weighed in | Episode 461

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