Mayor Pete Stunned by Meghan McCain Asking About ‘Infanticide After a Baby Was Born’: ‘Does Anyone Seriously Think’ That?

2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg stood firm in his views on abortion during a Thursday appearance on The View, when challenged by co-host Meghan McCain.

The two engaged in a spirited discussion that featured McCain suggesting that Buttigieg will lose votes from people in the midwest with his “radical” abortion stance.

“I actually think you understand the middle of the country, probably because of where you’re from. I saw an interview you did on a radio show talking about abortion and I think this got a lot of play in conservative circles where you were talking about — this is your quote — ‘there’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath, so that is something we can interpret that differently,'” McCain said to Buttigieg.

McCain continued: “In my circles, it was passed around because I think the interpretation from pro-life people like me was that you meant a baby actually being born and there’s a lot of controversy with Governor Northam and what it means and what time a woman should be able to have an abortion. I wanted you to clarify because I found that statement to be pretty radical.”

The mayor from South Bend, Indiana, responded by saying “no one person has to be subjected to some other person’s interpretation of their own religion.”

“I’m just pointing to the fact that different people will interpret their own moral lights and for that matter interpret scripture differently. But we live in a country where it is extremely important that no one person have to be subjected to some other person’s interpretation of their own religion,” Buttigieg continued.

McCain then brought up partial-birth abortion, which Buttigieg stated, “My point is it shouldn’t be up to a government official to draw the line. It should be up to the woman.”

McCain went further, asking what if a woman wanted to “invoke infanticide after a baby was born? You’d be comfortable with that?”

“Does anybody seriously think that’s what these cases are about?” Buttigieg asked.

After McCain confirmed, Buttigieg explained.

“Think about the situation. If this is a late-term situation, then by definition it’s one where a woman was expecting to carry the pregnancy to term. Then she gets the most, perhaps, devastating news of her life. We’re talking about families that may have picked out a name, maybe assembling a crib and they learn something, excruciating, and are faced with this terrible choice. And I don’t know what to tell them, morally, about what they should do. I just know that I trust, and her decision, medically or morally, isn’t going to be any better because the government is commanding her to do it,” Buttigieg continued.

McCain then said that the mayor’s response would gravely hurt him when it comes to garnering votes from Republicans in the middle of the country.

“To put a peg on this, I respect what you’re saying because you didn’t back down from it. This is going to hurt you in the middle of the country with the Republicans you’re trying to win over.”

“Quite frankly, that answer was just as radical as I thought it was, sorry,” McCain concluded.

Watch above, via ABC.