During a discussion about this week’s abortion vote in Kansas, co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” sparred Wednesday about faith’s role in the issue. Former co-host and outspoken Christian Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who returned to mark the show’s 25th anniversary, challenged several statements by longtime host Whoopi Goldberg, an abortion-rights supporter.
To defend her stance, Goldberg said God gave women “freedom of choice” and “made us smart enough to know when it wasn’t going to work for us.” Citing the Golden Rule—“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”—the 66-year-old actress added she “will not make that [abortion] decision for anybody” or judge what someone chooses to do with her body.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Abortion Alternatives Exist
Hasselbeck, who co-hosted “Fox & Friends” for two years after a decade as the conservative voice on “The View,” challenged those comments. “What about life in the womb?” she asked Goldberg.
Hasselbeck, a 45-year-old mother of three, also spoke about the many options besides abortion. “There are thousands of agencies that wrap around women that might not be able to care for the baby once born or may not want the baby when they’re pregnant or maybe it was unexpected and they’re in a hard situation, but that will come around at no cost and wrap around you,” she said.
“And I might not change your minds, but I hope women out there know to look for the nonprofits, look for the agencies that help you create a birth plan and match you with an adoptive family who may have suffered miscarriage after miscarriage who want to care for the baby.”
Speaking about her faith, Hasselbeck added, “I believe our Creator assigns value to life and that those lives have plan and purpose over them, as designed by God, that are not limited to the circumstances of conception, nor the situations they’re born into.”
Though Goldberg admitted her own relationship with God is “always choppy,” she told Hasselbeck, “I also know that God made me smart enough to know that if there are alternatives out there that can work for me, I will investigate them.”
Whoopi Goldberg: ‘View’ Co-Hosts Are All ‘Pro-Life’
Joining the conversation, co-host Joy Behar claimed the adoption system is overwhelmed. “There are 117,000 children waiting to be adopted right now,” she said, “so it’s not such a snap thing, ‘I’ll have the baby and it will be put up for adoption.’”