A 10-minute segment on CNN Monday night went completely off the rails when former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) attempted to explain his pro-life views to host Chris Cuomo and liberal analyst Christine Quinn.
What started as a heated back-and-forth over the string of heartbeat bills passing state legislatures across the country — laws that ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, which usually happens around six weeks into pregnancy — soon turned into a war of words that ended with Quinn and Cuomo, both of whom are Catholic, ganging up on Santorum, who is also Catholic, accusing him of lying about what happens during abortion.
“No priest is gonna condone lying,” Quinn told Santorum, following Cuomo’s lead.
The segment was centered on the heartbeat bill signed into law Tuesday by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who had been facing pressure from Hollywood elites in recent months. Activist Alyssa Milano spearheaded a campaign to push Kemp to veto the pro-life legislation.
Quinn argued the heartbeat bill is a “clear attempt to make abortion illegal across the country. That’s what they are.”
What else did they say?
Seemingly failing to understand how states’ rights work, Cuomo asked Santorum why he thinks it’s OK for state lawmakers to pass bills that contradict federal statutes. Santorum quickly reminded him of the numerous sanctuary cities around the U.S. as well as the states that have legalized marijuana. The CNN host had nothing to say.
Santorum went on to argue states should pass pro-life laws because the U.S. Supreme Court made the wrong decision in Roe v. Wade, an opinion that baffled both Quinn and Cuomo, who asked the former senator, “So you don’t believe in the Supreme Court?”
He rebutted by noting millions of preborn infants are dying as a result of abortion. Quinn then told Santorum if he “really cared” about lives being lost, he’d be very supportive of abortion. “You actually do not care about women,” she added.
“A baby dies in abortion. Do you realize that? Are you ignoring that fact? That’s a reality,” Santorum said.
Waffling, Cuomo stepped in to help Quinn, telling Santorum it’s “not a legal fact” that preborn babies are human beings.
Neither Cuomo nor Quinn were able to tell Santorum what they believe a fetus is prior to viability, which is a logically problematic metric for determining personhood, because, as technology advances, the age of viability will trend younger and younger. Unable to provide a viable answer, though, Cuomo nonchalantly said it really doesn’t matter because a preborn baby is “not recognized under our law as a person.”
Frustrated by Santorum’s arguments, Quinn repeatedly declared it is “not science” to suggest a baby inside the womb is a human being. Cuomo then told Santorum to “calm down.”
“OK,” Santorum said, “before that thing is a person, what is it?”
Once again, neither Cuomo nor Quinn could answer his question. In fact, it didn’t even seem to make sense to the pair. The CNN host then accused Santorum of “perverting fact patterns” and “perverting reality” by arguing a human life begins at conception.
Cuomo then got on a soapbox and demonized pro-lifers — “you guys” — as an uninformed group of people who don’t understand how difficult it is for a woman to choose abortion. Interestingly, Cuomo seemed to admit during his rant that abortion does, in fact, take a human life. Santorum interjected, “But she’s still taking a life, Chris.” Cuomo replied, “Yeah, I know. And they think about it.”
Both Cuomo and Quinn also suggested Santorum has no right to be against abortion because he’s not a woman. The mind-boggling segment finally came to a close with Quinn and Cuomo shaming Santorum for “lying” about abortion, claiming a priest would not support the commentator’s views.
They both have apparently forgotten the Catholic Church’s very clearly pro-life stance on the issue. Cuomo challenged Santorum to find a priest who would support his arguments, so he did:
The entire debate really was stunning. If you haven’t seen it yet, scroll back up to the top of this story and watch it.