Meghan McCain grills Pete Buttigieg on his abortion views
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has again garnered attention for his views on abortion, this time with an exchange between himself and “The View” co-host Meghan McCain.
On Thursday's episode of “The View,” McCain asked Buttigieg about earlier comments he made claiming that the Bible says life does not begin before the first breath, and so it can be interpreted that abortion is acceptable.
“In my circles it was passed around everywhere because I think the interpretation from pro-life people like me was that you meant a baby actually being born,” said McCain.
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“You know there's a lot of controversy with Governor Northam and what it means and what time a woman should be able to have an abortion. I just wanted you to clarify because I found that statement to be pretty radical.”
Buttigieg responded by saying that he was just explaining that there are different interpretations of Scripture and morality on the abortion issue.
“We live in a country where it is extremely important that no one person have to be subject to some other person’s interpretation of their own religion,” he said.
McCain then brought up partial birth abortion and what limits he supported on abortion, to which the Democratic candidate said that he did not believe the government should be involved in setting any limits on abortion.
“My point is that it shouldn’t be up to a government official to draw the line, it should be up to the woman,” said Buttigieg, who received loud applause from the studio audience.
Buttigieg also defended the practice of late-term abortion, arguing that it presents a situation in which “a woman was expecting to carry the pregnancy to term” only to find out that she must make a “terrible choice” due to unexpected complications.
“And I don’t know what to tell them, morally, about what they should do. I just know that I trust her and her decision,” he argued, getting more applause from the audience after concluding his remarks.
Lila Rose, founder and president of the pro-life group Live Action, took to social media to denounce Buttigieg’s comments on “The View.”
“He said as long as a mother wants to abort a baby, at any age, she should be able to. Even if that means partially delivering a full-grown, 7 pound infant, who can recognize her mother’s voice, & then stabbing her neck & suctioning out her brain,” she tweeted on Thursday, getting as of Friday morning around 1,100 retweets and 2,500 likes.
At a town hall in Iowa last month in advance of the state caucus, Buttigieg was asked by Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats For Life of America, about how his campaign would be welcoming of pro-life Democrats.
“Well, I respect where you're coming from, and I hope to earn your vote. But I'm not going to try to earn your vote by tricking you. I am pro-choice. And I believe that a woman ought to be able to make that decision,” responded Buttigieg in part.
“The best I can offer is that if we can't agree on where to draw the line, the next best thing we can do is agree on who should draw the line. And in my view, it's the woman who's faced with that decision in her own life.”
Day was critical of the response she received from the candidate, later writing in a column for USA Today that she believed he refused to properly answer her queries.
“… instead [Buttigieg] focused on his unyielding support for abortion and did not really seem to want the vote from me or people who share my views," wrote Day.
“Buttigieg likes to talk about ‘future former Republicans.’ With his extreme stance on abortion, though, he is doing precisely the opposite: building an army of future former Democrats, disturbed by Trump but forced into a corner.”
