National Catholic Register, Jul 31, 2024 / 15:32 pm (CNA).
Legal abortion makes men freer than they would be without it, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Monday — leading pro-life advocates to respond that that’s the problem.
Buttigieg, 42, who has been floated as a possible running mate for likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, made the comment during an online fundraising event Monday night put on by a group called “White Dudes for Harris.”
“I’m so glad she has made freedom the theme of her campaign, and I think in so many ways that’s what’s at stake. And, yes, women’s freedom is Exhibit A after Donald Trump demolished the right to choose. But, of course, men are also more free in a country where we have a president who stands up for things like access to abortion care,” Buttigieg said.
Pro-life advocates reacting to Buttigieg’s comments said he put his finger on a problem with abortion: sex without responsibility.
“Buttigieg is just admitting what we have always known about abortion: that it empowers men to exploit women,” said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association, radio show co-host, and author of the 2017 book “Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female.”
“Buttigieg’s male ‘freedom’ comes at the cost of women’s freedom. It creates a world where men are ‘free’ to use women and women are coerced into abortions they don’t want to have,” McGuire said by email. “That’s not authentic freedom. It’s just domination by another name.”
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, called Buttigieg’s comments on abortion “creepy and disgusting.”
“Pete Buttigieg is recklessly suggesting that legal abortion makes men ‘more free’ as they can push a woman into having an abortion in order to shun responsibility,” Tobias told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, by text. “If men are part of creating a new life, they should accept the responsibility that goes along with caring for their child and the child’s mother.”
Emily Davis, communications spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said Buttigieg’s comment applies to her ex-boyfriend, who, she says, tried to pressure her into having an abortion after she unexpectedly got pregnant. She refused and gave birth to the baby.
“Not only have I experienced this firsthand, but every day more women come forward to talk about how they were pressured or coerced into unwanted abortions, often by male partners,” Davis told the Register by email.
“These brave women have a question for the Democrats: Where was our freedom?” Davis said. “So far, the Democrats have no answer. Under abortion czar Kamala Harris, they’re too committed to pushing an all-trimester, no-limits abortion agenda.”
Buttigieg’s list of ‘freedoms’
Buttigieg spoke for almost five minutes during the White Dudes for Harris event Monday. While abortion was first on his list, other examples of freedom Buttigieg offered included contraception, in vitro fertilization, and same-sex marriage as well as Obamacare, climate change, and joining a labor union.
The online event, which also featured actor Jeff Bridges and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, among others, reportedly raised more than $4 million.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Register contacted the press office of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which Buttigieg leads, seeking a response to the pro-life advocates’ criticism of his remarks but did not hear back by deadline.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Connect the dots:
The sexual revolution and porn, a contraceptive culture, abortion backstop, gender politics, third-option homosexuality, tribal LGBTQ religion, gender theory and transgender “rites”… and now Butt-gig as a running “mate,” or whatever.
Unfair to women, Dude Buttigieg and his spouse need not worry about pregnancy. Although Buttigieg is a Maltese surname meaning chicken owner, poulterer. They can father chickens.
Finally! The unvarnished truth from a Democrat!
The systemic lack of holding any male responsible for fathering a child as to child support etc. is widespread and what feeds the killings of the unborn. A society should enforce anyone who fathers a child to support through their 18th birthday which is the law. If it was enforced, there might be a decrease in pregnancy out of wedlock.
JML – it should extend through age 25 since kids need to learn skills before they can be thrown out into the world in this economy. This idea of “rugged individualism” and “self-sufficiency” by age 18 is a counter-productive concept to building a community that upholds family values. And the very reason we now find ourselves inthe mess we are currently in. Rather than kicking the kids out of the nest and to the curb at age 18, we should do more to foster generational family homes and normalize children living with their parents until, and maybe even after the children are grown and married.
“Self-sufficiency”, “independence”, and “rugged individualism” are ok in very small doses and for a select few people. But overall they are also the steroids which exacerbate societal rot. No man is an island.
The idea that children should be out of the family home and living completely independent lives by age 18 is a strange one that we, as Catholics, should do better to fight against.
Child support’s enforced where we live. Worst offender deadbeat dads have their info & photos published. And I’ve seen pictures of deadbeat moms who owe child support published too. Those are far fewer in number though.
The intrinsically disordered effeminate Peter Buttigieg is in for a rude awakening during his particular judgment.
So sad. For decades while I was growing up, the Democratic Party proclaimed itself as “the Party of the Little Man.” They are definitely NOT the Party of the Littlest Man.
It seems like everyone’s issue here is with the Pick-Up Artists, Mens “Right’s” Activists, and MGTOWs. Yet for some reason rather than holding such selfish men accountable it’s the women who will be attacked, bullied, berated, and humiliated for their actions.
My earlier comment was a response to the title of the article only.
Somebody explain to me what Buttigieg’s game plan is here.