"I don’t believe in abortion at any time," Sunny says. "This has always been a very difficult discussion for me, but what is not difficult for me is the fact that this is an activist Supreme Court and they should not be deciding the law based on their faith."
"The View" bashed the Supreme Court's ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade before several liberal cast members declared they were actually "pro-life," although not all of them appeared to have the same definition for the term.
The hosts first learned of the news that Roe v. Wade, a 1973 landmark decision that granted federal protections for abortion, was overturned while on a flight to the Bahamas to tape their show this week, and they were shocked despite knowing it could come.
"We want to recognize right off the bat that not everyone agrees with this particular issue, but it is, at its core, about whether you have the right to make decisions about another person's reproductive choices," co-host Whoopi Goldberg said.
After spending the opening segment railing against the decision, reliably liberal co-host Sunny Hostin reminded viewers that she is personally against abortion.
"I don’t believe in abortion at any time. I don’t believe in any exception to it," Hostin said. "That’s considered very radical for many people, and it’s because I’m Catholic… so this has always been a very difficult discussion for me, but what is not difficult for me is the fact that this is an activist Supreme Court, and they should not be deciding the law based on their faith."
Advocates generally prefer to be identified as "pro-life," as opposed to "anti-abortion," to highlight their belief that abortion is the taking of human life. They believe life starts at the moment of conception and ends with natural death, while opponents, who identify as pro-choice, characterize them as restricting women's reproductive rights. Co-host Sara Haines, another liberal, also declared that she is "pro-life," but not in the same way as Hostin.
"I would say that I am rabidly pro-choice, but I’m also pro-life because I don’t see a 9-week-old fetus equal to a baby, equal to the mother," Haines said.
Goldberg then made a similar claim, telling viewers she’s "very pro-life" but doesn’t want people to be forced into making decisions.
"I’m very pro-life. I’ve never been anti-life. I want people to have the lives they want, but I don’t want to force anybody – I don’t want anybody coming in my house telling me how to raise my daughter and what she needs because they don’t know," Goldberg said.
The ruling came in the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which centered on a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Republican-led state of Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to strike down a lower court ruling that stopped the 15-week abortion ban from taking place.
Since the ruling was announced on Friday, pro-choice advocates have protested the decision that stunned the nation and raised discussion of how it will affect this fall's midterm elections.
