Stacey Abrams claims abortion restrictions emerge from 'cruelty and meanness' in resurfaced speech

Former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams prompted renewed backlash for claiming that abortion restrictions are unbiblical and rooted in cruelty during a resurfaced speech she delivered at a church.

Speaking at Allen Temple AME Church in Woodstock, Georgia, during her failed gubernatorial campaign against Brian Kemp in July 2022, Abrams cited her status as the daughter of two pastors to denounce the state's abortion restrictions, which prohibit the procedure after a baby's heartbeat is detected.

Stacey Abrams claims the Bible supports killing babies in abortions.

"I was trained to read and understand the Bible." ???? pic.twitter.com/jyrGB6BCU2

— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) August 23, 2026

"We live in a state that right now has decided to take cruelty to a new level. I am the daughter of two pastors. I have a strong moral core. I was trained to read and understand the Bible," she said.

"And I will tell you this: there is nothing about the decision to eliminate access to abortion care that is grounded in anything other than cruelty and meanness and danger in the state of Georgia. Nothing! Abortion care is a medical issue. It is a medical decision," she continued.

"And in the state of Georgia, it is a dangerous one. Brian Kemp — and yes, I'm going to call his name — is a hard-right religious extremist who has decided that he knows better than any woman about her body and has decided to make women second-class citizens in the state of Georgia, in the year of our Lord 2022."

Despite the clip being more than four years old, an X post from LifeNews.com on Sunday recirculated her speech on social media and drew significant pushback, including replies citing Bible verses such as Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1:5, which affirm the value of life in the womb.

"Given her conclusions, [Abrams] was evidently trained to override the original meaning of the Bible in favor of her self-centered, leftist ideology," said Robert Gagnon, who serves as visiting scholar at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

"Stacey Abrams reads a different Bible than you and I," said former North Carolina District GOP Secretary Margaret Ackiss.

Other X users suggested Abrams promoting abortion in a church while condemning pro-life views as evil was morally inverted and overtly satanic, including multiple people who posted an image depicting the ancient Israelites sacrificing their infant children to Moloch.

Georgia's heartbeat bill, also known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, bans abortions in the state after a baby's heartbeat becomes detectable, but includes exceptions for rape, incest, and if the mother is facing a medical emergency or the fetus is nonviable.

The law was passed in 2019, but a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, returning authority over abortion laws to the states, a federal appeals court overturned the lower court ruling on July 20, allowing the law to go into effect.

Weeks before the Georgia gubernatorial election in 2022, doctors repudiated Abrams' assertion that unborn babies do not have a heartbeat at six weeks' gestation, despite evidence from medical journals.