In a town hall, the Texas Senate candidate, who manipulates religious faith for political purposes as a matter of course, got challenged and schooled.
A few things about the somewhat infamous Democrat running for senator in Texas, James Talarico, and the exchange on abortion during last night’s CNN town hall:
My @UofDallas colleague Jodi Hunt engaging in civil discourse with @jamestalarico pic.twitter.com/VF17OtJVOq
— John J.S. Soriano (@JohnJSSoriano) October 15, 2026
Contrary to Talarico’s claim, abortion is clearly prohibited by the Bible. As Jodi Hunt, a University of Dallas professor of applied ministry who also heads the Neuhoff Institute for Ministry and Evangelization, made clear to him last night, we are instructed not to kill in the Ten Commandments. That means abortion is murder. It is a sin. If we can’t manage to not kill the most innocent, the unborn with no voice but that of the adults responsible for their lives, we are off to a gravely disastrous start with our stewardship of human life.
Abortion is not merely a public-policy problem, as the candidate described it. It is an existential one.
Talarico turns the “philosophical” debate over abortion into a “you say tomayto, I say tomahto” matter of casual preference. While we need to figure out how to operate as people with fundamental differences, abortion is a human rights issue of generational and eternal proportions.
Contraception is not the solution to abortion. Widespread availability of artificial contraception feeds the human anthropological problem of divorcing sex from procreation, and even love, and encourages reckless behavior.
If ten-year-olds are pregnant, it’s not abortions we need more of. It’s a sign of a far more fundamental problem. Adults who advocate abortions for children instead of insisting on protecting those children — and their children (God have mercy on us) — are part of the problem.
Jodi Hunt demonstrated what it means to be a responsible Catholic engaged in our political life, as she both challenged and schooled a candidate who manipulates religious faith for political purposes as a matter of course. She didn’t do something partisan last night. She did something Christian.