PHOENIX -- Delegates at the 2003 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting approved resolutions that repudiated a stance on abortion from three decades ago and reaffirmed their commitment to the biblical view of marriage, the family and religious liberty.

Baptist Press reported convention delegates voted with unanimity or near unanimity on eight resolutions during its morning session June 18.

The resolutions adopted:

• Reiterated the SBC's opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion 30 years ago and expressed regret that previous actions had supported abortion.
• Renewed Southern Baptists' commitment to the biblical model of the family and the permanence of marriage.
• Reaffirmed absolute religious liberty in this country and abroad, including the right to convert from the religion of a person's birth.
• Renounced all anti-Semitism.
• Restated opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage.
• Endorsed U.S. military action in Iraq as a "warranted action based upon historic principles of just war" and called for prayer for the rebuilding of that country.
• Supported humanitarian efforts to relieve the global AIDS crisis and encouraged Southern Baptists to act compassionately toward those with the disease.
• Expressed appreciation for the people of Phoenix, the Southern Baptists of the area, as well as all others involved in the proceedings of the annual meeting.

A lengthy resolution titled "On 30 Years of Roe v. Wade" restated the SBC's belief the 1973 ruling was "an act of injustice against innocent unborn children as well as against vulnerable women in crisis pregnancy situations," the news service reported.

The resolution noted convention resolutions in 1971 and 1974 "accepted unbiblical premises of the abortion rights movement, forfeiting the opportunity to advocate the protection of defenseless women and children."

In 1971, SBC delegates approved a resolution endorsing legislation that would permit abortion in cases of "rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental and physical health of the mother."

The 1974 convention affirmed the 1971 resolution.