Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned to The View on Wednesday and defended the rights of the unborn while urging women to consider adoption rather than abortion.
"I think one thing we're failing to mention to women as women is that there are options out there that extend beyond abortion," said Hasselbeck, a self-described conservative and a former co-host.
Hasselbeck appeared on the show to discuss her new children's book, Flashlight Night: An Adventure in Trusting God.
The show eventually turned to hot-button issues, including abortion.
"I believe our Creator assigns value to life," she said. "And those lives have a 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."
On "The View," guest co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck goes on a long anti-abortion rant:
— The Recount (@therecount) August 3, 2022
"There are options out there that extend beyond abortion … I believe our Creator assigns value to life. Those lives have plan and purpose over them, as designed by God." pic.twitter.com/SRW8PdOLMj
Hasselbeck referenced pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, which provide free services to pregnant women. The centers often are called "pregnancy resource centers."
"There are options out there. There are thousands of agencies that wrap around women [who] 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," she said. "But [those agencies] will come around at no cost and wrap around you.
"And I might not change your minds, but I hope women out there know to look for the non-profits, 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. So that option is real. And it's out there. And I don't believe in giving women half the information out there."
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg disagreed, saying God gave "us freedom of choice."
"I will not make that decision for anybody," Goldberg said.
Hasselbeck asked, "What about the life in the womb?"
"That life has a plan and a purpose designed by God," she said.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Terry Wyatt/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.