Earlier this week, Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI), a self-titled “pro-choice Christian,” spoke against the Born-Alive bill that would provide essential medical care for babies who survive abortions. Backing up her stance against the bill, she cited Jeremiah 1:5, a Biblical verse used by pro-lifers.
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) Misuses a Bible Verse to Justify Voting Against a Bill Protecting Babies Born Alive in Botched Abortions https://t.co/jo4myEq1Su
— Ben Owen🇺🇸 (@hrkbenowen) January 12, 2023
The freshman Democratic congresswoman told fellow House members about a “complex miscarriage” which made her lose a daughter. During the remark, she stated, “As a pro-choice Christian who chose life, this issue is so personal to me. My faith informs my actions, but it doesn’t dictate the policy of an entire nation. And further, when I read the Scripture…I’m guided by passages like Jeremiah 1:5 which states, ‘I knew you before I formed you, and I placed you in your mother’s womb.’”
Speaking to the Christian Post, Michael New, an associate scholar at the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute stated that Rep. Scholten’s use of the Jeremiah verse in this instance is completely odd because Christians cite it “to make theological or scriptural arguments in favor of legal protections for preborn children.”
Scholten, however, twisted the Bible verse to explain that it doesn’t say the government’s womb or the speaker’s womb but says the mother’s womb. “I believe life is precious, but I reject the idea that if I embrace the sanctity of life, I also must be forced to invite the federal government in to regulate it,” she posited.
She further argued that the United States must protect citizens from “unnecessary government intrusion into the most sacred and personal decisions of our lives and our children’s lives.
Speaking more on the Born-Alive bill, New stated that “regardless of one’s faith tradition or one’s stance on abortion, protecting infants is something that everyone should enthusiastically support.”
On Wednesday, the House passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act by a 220-210 vote. All Democrats voted against the bill except Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who voted in favor. However, the bill would face challenges at the Democratic-controlled Senate level. Already, Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris — who casts the Senate deciding vote in the case of a tie — revealed that she stands against the bill.
“House Republicans passed an extreme bill today that will further jeopardize the right to reproductive health care in our country,” she said in a tweet, labeling the legislation as “yet another attempt by Republican legislators to control women’s bodies.”
The bill passed by the House Republicans will mandate that babies born alive after attempted abortion will receive the same degree of care that other premature infants receive. The bill also threatens non-complying healthcare providers with a fine or up to five years of imprisonment.
