Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has suggested that unborn babies can be aborted until they breathe for the first time, a position rejected by the vast majority of the country.
Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, claimed that his position was rooted in the Bible.
“Then again, there’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath, and so even that is something that we can interpret differently.”
He said he was pro-choice. “But no matter where you think about the kind of cosmic question of how life begins, most Americans can get on the board with the idea of, ‘Alright, I might draw the line here, you might draw the line there,’” he said. “But the most important thing is the person who should be drawing the line is the woman making the decision.”
Support for abortion in general has crept up over the years, but respondents to polls have long been against late-term abortions.
Earlier in the show Buttigieg said that there was majority support for many of his positions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1.3 percent of the 638,169 abortions conducted in 2015—8,296—were late-term abortions.
In May, Buttigieg revealed his support for late-term abortions.
“I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on where you draw the line, that we’ve gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line, and I trust women to draw the line when it’s their life,” Buttigieg said.
Host Chris Wallace asked if Buttigieg would be okay with a pregnant woman, well into the third trimester of pregnancy, deciding to abort the baby.
“Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation. If it’s that late in your pregnancy, that means almost by definition you’re expecting to carry it to term. We’re talking about women who have perhaps chosen a name, women who have purchased a crib, families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime. Something about the health or the life of the mother that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice,” the mayor said.
“That decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision is made.”
The mayor’s latest comments drew criticism, including from his brother-in-law.
Pastor Rhyan Glezman, 34, said he was concerned about Buttigieg’s claim that the Bible supports abortion.
“God places a very high value on all human life. Everyone is created fearfully and wonderfully in the image of God with intrinsic value. That doesn’t start at the first breath, it starts when we enter our mother’s womb.”
“If we’re going to say we’re for all people and we love all people, but we don’t value human life in the womb, that’s being a hypocrite. You’re hypocritical if you don’t stand up for all life. So that’s why I’m speaking out,” he added. “This isn’t a little issue, especially when we’re talking about life. This is not just a political conversation. We’re talking about human life. These are human beings.”
Glezman initially responded to Buttigieg’s comments on social media, writing on Twitter: “My brother in law needs to repent from this radical false teaching. God does not endorse this nonsense, only false religion does.”
