To whomever made the first search, it seems like you might be struggling with a previous decision to have an abortion. I can only imagine how painful living with that decision could be. I hope you found something online that has helped you.
ElizaSnow (January 21, 1804 - December 5, 1887) was one messed up lady. She was known as a poet from her early years so maybe we should say she was more of a trouble artist type. Some say she lived a life of celibacy, some say she was raped by persecutors of the Church, some say she had sex with both her husbands, some say she was pregnant at one point with Joseph Smith's child. However mysterious her sex life may be, her poetry and autobiographic writings reveal someone who needed some serious help. To put it mildly, she was dramatic as fuck and completely full of herself. I'm amazed anyone wanted to be around her.
Eliza seems to have had a taste for Primitive Church movements. She first joined Alexander Campbell's Christian primitivist movement and then the Mormons. She moved to Kirtland, where she stayed with Joseph and Emma, even after being given her own lot. She moved with the saints to Missouri and then Nauvoo, where Joseph gave her an appointment in the newly organized Relief Society and told her about plural marriage. She was disgusted by the idea for all of a couple of months, and then she married Joseph. Joseph eventually invited Eliza to live with him and Emma in Nauvoo for what Eliza hoped would be a permanent stay. She took up teaching the Smith children. Living conditions soon got out of hand. About six months in Emma found out that Eliza was a sister wife, freaked out (Eliza says she kept her cool), and sent her down a flight of stairs (some say with a broom, other say by her hair). Eliza's fall might have prematurely ended a pregnancy, either way, it ended her stay with the Smiths.
It still hurts like like before, doesn't it Emma? Maybe worse because Joe didn't learn the first time? Maybe worse now that it's a self-righteous bitch your own age?
Eliza was a staunch and dishonest defender of polygamy. The same year she married Joseph she sent around a petition in Nauvoo collecting signatures from a thousand women denying Joseph's involvement in polygamy. Later that year she produced a Relief Society document denouncing the practice.
When Joseph died Eliza stayed close to power; she married Brigham Young (yet another reason why Emma would have no interest in moving out to Utah). Eliza never had any children of her own but she raised or help raise many by other women. She fought for women's suffrage and refused to be powerless. Today she is one of the most celebrated women in the LDS Church.
If The Book of Mormon was written for these latter days, why does its content seem so tightly focused on Joseph Smith's day? The whole thing is essentially a series of Second Great Awakening style sermons strung together in a narrative based on the answer to the question "who are the indigenous Americans?" In addition to the religious concerns of the early 19th century and the curiosities surrounding the First Nations people, we have a number of other very culturally specific topics of concern such as the preoccupation with avoiding a king as a ruler and opting instead for self-governance, declaring independence, war as a means of obtaining freedom, frontier justice, colonization, suspicion of secret societies like the Freemasons, and treasure seeking.
What does The Book of Mormon contain that addresses our current concerns about racism, LGBTQ rights, gender equality, abortion, proper taxation, etc. with the same perspective and precision? One might be prone to say that The Book of Mormon was written in Joseph's day for himself, and not thousands of years ago for us and our posterity. Unless you're one of these folks and have an awesome ability to make shit up.
It probably doesn't come as any surprise that The Man who has billions of children strongly prefered vaginal sex and isn't traditionally a fan of contraception at all. Thank God he's changed his mind in recent years about what husbands and wives can do to each other. Now whatever the married couple feels okay with is fair game (as long as it doesn't involve more participants, if I'm not mistaken)
"Decisions about birth control and the consequences of those decisions
rest solely with each married couple. Elective abortion as a method of
birth control, however, is contrary to the commandments of God."
Very much in line with conservative politics in the United States, most Mormons in the US are anti-abortion. Abortion is a very sad thing and the majority of women and couples who decide to have one typically do so with great reluctance and much deliberation.
One of the major topics of debate in the issue of abortion concerns our understanding of when life begins. Typically you either side with the "life begins at conception" team or the "life begins at birth" team. It's a sticky subject, to say the least. Your traditional Mormon take on things is that the zygote or embryo or fetus you have growing was predestined to come to Earth to have a body. There is a soul waiting for that body to slip out of the uterus and into the world so that soul can then take its place in the grand Plan of Salvation. Mormons would never want to rob a soul of its Earth body!
However I read something in the Book of Mormon that made me think Mormons shouldn't be all too worried about the souls of aborted fetuses. It's a nice little moment in 3 Nephi. The believers are about to be killed by the wicked because the sign of Christ's birth (the star) hasn't shown up yet and Nephi (no, not that Nephi) is so worried he prays for the protection of the believers. And guess what happens! The voice of the Lord (a.k.a. Jesus Christ, the dude who's about to be born into the world) bears Nephi tidings of great joy!
How the hell would Jesus have spoken to Nephi if his spirit were lodged inside the little fetus in Mary's uterus on the verge of being born? I looks like life just might begin at birth according to Mormon scripture... What's a boy to think?
If you wonder what the Bible has to say about abortion you might want to watch this Betty Bowers video:
