Politics

Buttigieg Refuses To Say He Does Not Support Infanticide

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Mary Margaret Olohan Social Issues Reporter
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2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg refused Thursday to say whether he supports infanticide.

Buttigieg spoke with The View’s Meghan McCain regarding his stance on abortions Thursday morning. McCain reminded Buttigieg that he once suggested that unborn babies can be aborted up until they draw their first breath, and offered Buttigieg a chance to walk back this statement, noting that Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s infanticide comments have accelerated the discussion of when a woman should be able to have an abortion.

I just wanted you to clarify, because I found that statement to be pretty radical,” she told him.

But Buttigieg did not walk back his previous statement. (RELATED: Buttigieg Draws On Bible, Suggests Unborn Babies Can Be Aborted Up Until Their First Breath)

“I’m just pointing to the fact that different people will interpret their own moral lights, and for that matter, interpret scripture differently,” he said. “But we live in a country where it is extremely important that no one person has to be subjected to some other person’s interpretation of their own religion.

The 2020 presidential candidate added that his point was that “it shouldn’t be up to a government official to draw the line. It should be up to the woman.”

“If a woman wanted to invoke infanticide after a baby was born, you’d be comfortable with that?” McCain asked him.

“Think about the situation. If this is a late-term situation, then by definition it’s one where a woman was expecting to carry the pregnancy to term. Then she gets the most perhaps devastating news of her life. We’re talking about families that may have picked out a name, maybe assembling a crib and they learn something, excruciating, and are faced with this terrible choice,” the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor said. 

“I don’t know what to tell them morally about what they should do,” he continued.I just know that I trust her and her decision medically or morally isn’t going to be any better because the government is commanding her to do it.”

The Buttigieg campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony List responded to Buttigieg’s comments in a Thursday statement.

“Pete Buttigieg is no moderate when it comes to abortion, refusing on national television to repudiate partial-birth abortion or support protections for babies born alive,” SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.

“On the heels of his town hall comments denying pro-life Democrats a voice within the party, Buttigieg doubles down on support for partial-birth abortion – a barbaric practice in which an unborn child in late pregnancy is partially delivered and killed by stabbing the base of her skull with scissors.”

Dannenfelser added that there is only choice for voters who are “repelled by the Democrat’s extreme abortion” agenda: “Donald Trump, our pro-life president.”

Live Action founder and president Lila Rose said that Buttigieg’s comments show that he believes a mother should be able to abort a baby at any age.

No, Pete Buttigieg did give a stance,” Rose tweeted. “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 lb infant, who can recognize her mother’s voice, & then stabbing her neck & suctioning out her brain.”

March for Life President Jeanne Mancini tweeted that Buttigieg’s responses to McCain “are not direct and are out of touch with mainstream America.”

“75% of Americans would limits abortion, at most, to first three months of pregnancy,” the March for Life President tweeted. “This includes 6/10 pro-choice Americans. Social justice begins in the womb. Compassion begins in the womb.The most violent place in US right now is in a mother’s womb.I’m extending an open invitation to you to meet any time to talk more about these issues which are near & dear to the large majority of Americans.”

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