A US radio host has hit out at pro-life Christians, arguing that the Bible endorses abortion.
In a segment of "The Kyle Kulinski Show" on 28 March, the eponymous host used passages from scripture to suggest that God favours the pro-choice movement, and that verses championed by pro-life supporters have been taken out of context and exploited for their gain.
In a clip from the show which was tweeted by the RH Reality Check Twitter account - which, according to the Christian Post, works parallel to Planned Parenthood - on Tuesday, Kulinski first of all looks to a verse from Jeremiah often used by pro-lifers to support their cause.
Jeremiah 1:4-5 says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations". Those in favour of the pro-life stance often quote the first half of this passage as justification for God lovingly caring for babies before they are even born. This, Kulinski argues, is not the whole story, however.
"[God is] not talking about all people; he's talking specifically about Jeremiah. What an epic fail for the pro-life movement; that's their whole basis!" he exclaims.
The radio host then turns to Exodus, in which it is revealed that the punishment for punching a woman in the stomach and causing her to miscarry is not the death penalty, as would befit murder, but merely a fine.
An increasingly agitated Kulinski then goes even further, arguing that God himself performs abortions in the Bible. He points to Hosea 9:14 which says: "Give them, oh Lord, what wilt thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts".
"Yes this is the part of the Bible where God actually performs abortions. But obviously the Bible is completely against abortions other than the parts where God performs abortions," he adds sarcastically.
"This idea that Christians have that the Bible is 'obviously' against abortions is totally and utterly made up," he concludes in the ten-minute clip.
"People use [the Bible] to justify whatever their already held beliefs are...Abortion is their pet cause, it doesn't matter that it doesn't say it in the Bible.
"Everything Jesus said is super hippie and super left-wing, but the conservative Christians disregard that and they focus on abortion.
"It's not about what [the Bible] says, it's about what your already held biases and prejudices are, and then you're just going to use the book to justify it."
Though Kulinski, a self-proclaimed "agnostic-atheist, and secular humanist" who claims to value "principles over politicians, objective reality over subjective opinion [and] facts above all else" is evidently convinced by his own arguments, the response he has received suggests that many do not agree.
"Here's a sign the pro-choice side is running out of arguments: praising God as an abortionist" writes Katie Yoder in a blog for Newsbuster.org.
