A new billboard campaign promoting abortion services in conservative states cites a Bible verse with the words of Jesus as an apparent endorsement in California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom posted images on social media showing billboards set to go up in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and four other “anti-freedom” states where abortion is prohibited or significantly restricted.
Newsom’s tweet read in part: “To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: CA will defend your right to make decisions about your health.”
Newsom tagged several Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, with whom he shared a billboard image that reads: “Need an abortion? California is ready to help.”
The billboard partially quotes Mark 12:31: “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”
Funded by Newsom’s reelection campaign, the billboard omits the context of the exchange in the previous verse, in which Jesus is asked by a scribe, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Another billboard features the words “Texas doesn’t own your body.” A similar billboard was also made for Indiana.
Manu Catholics groups criticized and condemned the billboard. Joy Stockbauer, a policy analyst for the Center for Human Dignity at the Washington-based Christian conservative advocacy group Family Research Council, told The Christian Post that Newsom’s reelection campaign is “disturbing.”
“Governor Newsom’s disrespect for the sincerely held religious convictions of Bible-believing Americans is disturbing, but sadly nothing new from far-left extremists within the Democratic Party,” wrote Stockbauer via email.
“Perhaps Newsom wouldn’t be so desperate to draw vulnerable women to California if his actual constituents weren’t fleeing the state in droves due to his unwillingness to address the rampant violent crime problem.”