Dialogue Journal published an essay examining what happens when the LDS Church supports abortion restrictions that go beyond the exceptions recognized in its own handbook, which allows for abortion in cases of rape, incest, threats to the mother's life or health, and fatal fetal diagnoses. The piece draws on Mormon history to explore how Latter-day Saints have understood pregnancy, abortion, and moral agency.

The Church's official position permits abortion in narrow circumstances while generally opposing it, but the Church has supported various state-level abortion restrictions. The essay explores the tension between the Church's stated exceptions and its political activity on abortion legislation.