The deuce you say. So that whole 'thou shalt not kill' escaped the attention of seminarian James Talarico, eh? Seems like an important theological detail, especially when connected to Jeremiah 1:5.
In last night's CNN town hall, Talarico defended his position on legalizing abortion by claiming the Bible was silent on it. The woman who asked the question immediately rebuked the Presbyterian pastor for it:
TALARICO: But I'm really, really grateful you did. You know, some of my spiritual heroes, like Pope Francis and Pope Leo are pro-life, and they are consistently pro-life. They're not just against abortion, but they are against poverty, against climate change, against war. And so I can respect anyone, like you, who is consistently pro-life. And I actually think there's common ground we can find here. We may come to different moral and ethical conclusions when it comes to the question of should abortion be legal or not. It sounds like you and I do come to a different conclusion. That's OK. You know, were both Christians and -- and the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion. It means you and I both have to look at -- at different scriptures to try to come to a conclusion.
Oh, really? Jodi Hunt, the Catholic educator who asked Talarico to explain his position on abortion, immediately objected as Talarico appeared to realize his predicament:
Stunning moment as a Texas Christian voter rebukes Talarico’s false claim that the Bible is “silent on abortion.” https://t.co/w2sJ4qggyt
— Jacob Wheeler (@JWheelertv) October 15, 2026
You know, it's right there in Exodus, which is also part of the Torah, about which more in a moment. It's not tough to find. It was carved into a stone tablet for emphasis.
Technically, Talarico has a point. The word "abortion" does not appear in the Bible. However, there are passages about the abomination of child sacrifices in the Old Testament, including this passage from 1 Kings 16:2-3:
2Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, 3but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering,z according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
And while the context of "thou shall not kill" can be argued ad infinitum, given the exhortations by the Lord for the Israelites to go to war, it's also very clear that this commandment applied to the poor and innocent above all. The passage from Jeremiah supplies additional context about the status of the unborn, too:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a] you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
In fact, this context was so clear to the first generation of the church that they addressed the issue of abortion specifically in its first catechism: the Didache. While the word "abortion" does not appear in the Bible, the Didache explicitly forbade it as murder of the innocent, emphasis mine:
The second commandment in the Teaching means: Commit no murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, or theft. Practise no magic, sorcery, abortion, or infanticide. See that you do not covet anything your neighbour possesses, and never be guilty of perjury, false witness, slander, or malice. Do not equivocate in thought or speech, for a double tongue is a deadly snare; the words you speak should not be false or empty phrases, but fraught with purposeful action. You are not to be avaricious or extortionate, and you must resist any temptation to hypocrisy, spitefulness, or superiority. You are to have no malicious designs on a neighbour. You are to cherish no feelings of hatred for anybody; some you are to reprove, some to pray for, and some again to love more than your own life.
The earliest church fathers understood abortion and infanticide as antithetical to Christianity and to Judaism as well. The issue was acute enough for an explicit condemnation of those practices to those in and entering the Church. The apostles and their successors understood the scriptures and the displeasure of the Lord over the practices of child sacrifice to Moloch, adopted by Ahaz to the fury of the Lord, and that abortion is just another child sacrifice to benefit the parents.
Amazingly, though, this all escaped the attention of Democrats' favorite seminarian in this cycle. Or did it? The NRSC offers a clip of Talarico arguing that the Torah actually uses the scripture as a how-to manual for abortion:
James Talarico is lying in the faces of Texas voters. TONIGHT: "The Bible is silent on the issue of abortion." LAST YEAR: The Bible has "some subtle instructions for how to perform an abortion." https://t.co/0q1UJp1vtv
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) October 15, 2026
Old and busted: The DaVinci Code. New hotness: The Sanger Code!
Talarico is nothing more than a cheap huckster, misrepresenting scripture to sell a very secular and nihilistic agenda. Texas voters should beware the serpents in the Lone Star pasture who pose as shepherds.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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