Months after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos had the same legal status as children, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is set to vote on whether to take a stand against in vitro fertilization.

Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker cited verses from the Bible and Christian theologians in his Feb. 16 concurring opinion that sparked national debate and left lawmakers scrambling to keep the state’s in vitro fertilization clinics running.

Parker argued that the court was merely enforcing a principle that has “deep roots that reach back to the creation of man ‘in the image of God,’” Parker said, quoting the Book of Genesis. He also quoted a Bible verse in which God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”

When the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Indianapolis June 9-12, members are expected to vote on several resolutions, including one that would condemn IVF because it creates more embryos that can be implanted. The resolution states embryos would be left frozen and “unquestionably destined for eventual destruction.”

“In Vitro Fertilization most often engages in the destruction of embryonic human life and increasingly engages in dehumanizing methods for determining suitability for life and genetic sorting, based on notions of genetic fitness and parental preferences,” the resolution reads.

“We call on Southern Baptists to love all of their neighbors in accordance with their God-given dignity as image bearers and to advocate for the government to restrain actions inconsistent with the dignity and value of every human being, which necessarily includes frozen embryonic human beings,” the resolution continues.

There are less than 13 million Southern Baptists, the denomination’s lowest number since the 1970s, but it remains the nation’s, and state’s, largest Protestant denomination. The SBC has 753,653 members in 3,164 Southern Baptist-affiliated churches in Alabama.

“Southern Baptists believe that Christians should in general oppose IVF because by its very nature it separates procreation from sex and treats children as products rather than people,” the staff of the Baptist Messenger wrote earlier this week. “It is morally ambiguous enough to be problematic and should be discouraged as a matter of wisdom and prudence.”

However, Southern Baptists believe “children, no matter how they were conceived or even where they are located (in or outside the womb), are full image bearers of God and possess inherent dignity and worth. No discussion, debate, or decision on the ethics of IVF can or should ever diminish the value of children created through this process.”

Around the time of the Alabama IVF ruling, Andrew T. Walker, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, called for the adoption of an official resolution addressing IVF at the SBC’s next convention.

“When you consider the moral goods that Scripture holds as inseverable for where conception ought to occur, IVF is ruled out,” Walker posted on X.

Walker and R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, proposed the resolution, The New York Times reports.

Walker told The Times he could not predict how the proposed resolution would be received.

“What remains to be seen,” he said, “is how well understood IVF is, which our resolution seeks to remedy. But I trust Southern Baptists to do the right, noble, and consistent thing when all the facts are known.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.