OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
9:24 AM – Saturday, May 30, 2026
Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico, who is hoping to secure the vacated U.S. Senate seat for the state of Texas this November, has claimed that “the Bible is silent on abortion.”
In an interview with podcaster Jamie Kern Lima this month, Talarico, who won the Democrat nomination in the primaries this spring, used his faith to defend abortion, lamenting Texas’ “extreme” abortion bans.
“I trust Texas women to make decisions about their own bodies, to shape their own destinies in consultation with their families, their doctors, their faith leaders,” Talarico said, drawing on the assumption that abortion only involves a mother’s body. “I don’t believe that’s a place for government. I don’t believe it’s a place for politicians, I don’t believe it’s a place for the state. And that isn’t — that’s a believe I hold not despite my faith, but because of my faith.”
“Jesus never talks about abortion,” he stated. “The Bible is silent on abortion.”
The Senate hopeful has received criticism from conservatives for several past comments, including from President Donald Trump.
Trump said in a Truth Social post this week that Talarico “may be the worst TEXAS candidate,” who “believes there are six genders” and “is insulting to Jesus Christ.”
Talarico’s Trump-endorsed opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won the Republican nomination on Tuesday, called him “radical.”
Just after Paxton’s primary victory, Talarico walked back some comments in an interview with CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe.
“There are some statements that I have made that I certainly regret. There are statements that I have made where I have missed the mark. I will be the first to admit that,” he said.
Pressed on a point he made in a 2021 debate — “Modern science recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes — in fact, there are six” — the seminarian said, “I know there are two sexes, men and women. I also know there is a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities.”
During his podcast interview, Talarico advised Christians to “take scripture as a whole” on topics “as important as abortion” and “try to make some kind of ethical determination.”
Though abortion is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, Christians cite verses from several books across the anthology to support the pro-life position.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart,” God tells the prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 1:5 (New International Version).
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth,” Psalm 139:13-15 (NIV) reads.
Luke 1:41-44 tells of the Virgin Mary seeing her cousin, Elizabeth, and the child in Elizabeth’s womb, John the Baptist, leaping for joy.
In Exodus 21:22-25, the law of Moses demands that if a person hits a pregnant woman and causes serious injury to the child, the woman’s husband is to “take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
In Leviticus 20:1-5 (NIV), God tells Moses that any Israelite who took part in the pagan practice of sacrificing children to the false god, Molek, “is to be put to death” by stoning. It also discourages the “members of the community” from ignoring the sacrifice of children.
“I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. 4 If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, 5 I myself will set my face against him and his family,” the verses read.
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