4 things to know about Senate candidate James Talarico's PCUSA pastor: 'Wolf in sheep's clothing'

2. Abortion: 'Extracted teeth'

Rigby's church is one of the few in Texas to achieve the "Reproductive Freedom Congregation" designation from the Texas Freedom Network's Just Texas Project, which defines such congregations as ones that "proudly proclaim abortion is a moral and social good."

In 2016, Rigby described a Texas bill mandating fetal remains be cremated or buried instead of disposed of like medical waste as a "ghoulish assault on Texas women" and a Trojan horse law intended to make reproductive healthcare less accessible.

"The regulation dishonestly claims its purpose is to protect the public's health and safety by preventing the spread of disease. But by that tortured logic, we should also have to hold a burial or cremation for amputated feet and for each of our extracted teeth," he wrote.

He has also suggested that opposing abortion rights is dehumanizing to women.

"It really is about the personhood of women," he said, according to The Presbyterian Outlook. "If women don't belong to themselves, if they don't have bodily integrity, if they are not considered moral agents, I don't know that they are being considered people. To me, this is a hugely important human rights issue."

Talarico prompted outrage when he invoked the Virgin Mary and the Incarnation to defend abortion during a July 18 episode of the "Joe Rogan Experience," during which he claimed Mary's consent to the angel Gabriel's message suggests that the Bible is pro-choice. He repeated the refrain that, as with homosexuality, Jesus had nothing to say about abortion.

NEW: Texas House Democrat and pastor James Talarico suggests the Bible supports abortion, says there is no Biblical basis for Christians to be anti-abortion.

"So this idea that to be a Christian means you have to be anti gay and anti abortion... There really is no historical,… pic.twitter.com/GPo5udFzIF

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 18, 2025