As he has so many times before, South Bend, IN Mayor and Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg (pronounced “boot-a-judge”) is attempting to use a distorted view of Scripture to justify his politics. His latest adventure in misuse of Scripture is trying to claim that abortion is perfectly compatible with the Scripture and Christian theology. In an interview on the politically left-leaning radio show “The Breakfast Club”, Mayor Pete (as he’s called in his hometown) said that Republicans (for him, a synonym for “Christians”) try to hold everyone in line with doctrine on abortion.
Christianity according to Buttigieg
According to Buttigieg, abortion “is obviously a tough issue for a lot of people to think through morally…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…I think, no matter what you think about the kind of cosmic question of how life begins, most Americans can get on board with the idea of, alright, I might draw the line here, you might draw the line there, but the most important thing is the person who should be drawing the line is the woman making the decision.”
The Scriptural evidence
Its difficult to know what exact Scriptures Buttigieg had in mind, since he didn’t reference any specifically. What is clear, though, is that if challenged to do so, he’d have a pretty tough time making the case for his argument on both Biblical as well as scientific grounds.
In the Old Testament
Several passages in both the Old and New Testaments could be cited to support the idea that God recognizes that human life begins in the womb. In Isaiah 44:24 we read, “This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, “ Note that the Lord clearly says He formed us “in the womb”.
Then there is Exodus 21:22, “If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides.” Here we note that it is a “child” that is born prematurely. Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Again, the image of being formed as a human being in the womb.
New Testament support for abortion?
On final example will really drive home the point. In Luke 1:41-44, we see the meeting of Mary, who is pregnant with Jesus, a