The View’s Sunny Hostin is once again embroiled in a heated on-air feud with her cohost, Sara Haines, as the duo clashed again over the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos are children.
Sara, 46, became visibly frustrated with mum-of-two Sunny on Friday’s episode of the ABC show as they argued about the viability of an embryo and whether or not it should be defined as ‘life’, with the blonde TV star the latter: ‘If we’re going to use science, let’s use scientific terms!’
“An embryo is the beginning of human life,” lawyer Sunny, 55, fumed as she referred to the conception of her two children, Gabriel and Paloma, through IVF, but Sara, the mother of three, had none and dismissed back that an embryo was ‘not a child’.
At one point, Ana Navarro joined the conversation and reminded the Catholic Sunny that “the church you belong to is against IVF,” then shouted, “Let me finish,” as the lawyer tried to get her in mid-sentence to interrupt. .
Sara Haines and Sunny Hostin (right) got into another heated argument during Friday’s episode of The View
Sara became very passionate as she shared her thoughts on embryo viability as Joy Behar (left) looked on
Ana Navarro joined the debate and shouted at Sunny, “Let me finish!” after trying to interrupt her
The sensitive debate stemmed from the ruling in Alabama arising from a lawsuit filed by a group of IVF patients whose frozen embryos were destroyed in December 2020 when a patient removed them from a cryogenic storage unit and accidentally dropped them on the floor .
The Alabama Supreme Court has now ruled that the patient who accidentally destroyed the embryos can be sued for wrongful death for a minor act, which Sara completely disagrees with.
‘A fertilized embryo is three to five days old. It’s the size of the pin there,” she said, using the tip of her pen as an example. ‘It doesn’t live outside the womb. It has no organs. It’s not life yet. It is only viable when it is 24 weeks…’
Sunny tried to intervene and said, “You might not think so. There are at least 50 percent of Americans…’, but Sara was having none of it and said angrily, ‘This is science, Sunny! This is science!’
“Fifty percent of Americans believe a human embryo is a baby, and I’m one of them,” Sunny continued as Sara fired back, “Well, let me just go over the terminology! The embryo is an embryo until 10 weeks, after which it becomes a fetus. A fetus is only viable when it is 24 weeks old.
“If we’re going to use science, let’s use scientific terms, that’s it!” Sara added when Sunny retold her own IVF experience, to which her cohost bluntly replied, “That doesn’t mean the facts change!”
“An embryo is the beginning of human life and I know this…” Sunny said at the time, as cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin stepped in and asked, “But why do you support abortion if you believe that?”
“Oh, I’m not in favor of abortion,” Sunny fired back. “I’ve said this over and over again. I believe that the government should not interfere with women’s reproductive health, but I believe that abortion is wrong and I believe it too – not only because of my faith – but also because of my experience with having two embryos implanted in my body.
Mother-of-two Sunny, who conceived her children through IVF, argued that ‘an embryo is the beginning of human life’
Ana reminded Sunny that the Catholic Church she is a member of is “against IVF.”
Mother of three Sara used the tip of her pen to show how small an embryo is when it is three to five days old
‘I have a 21-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter, and my life wouldn’t be the same without them. And so if someone destroyed my embryos, I would feel like someone destroyed…” Sunny added, while Sara sarcastically replied, “Problematic but not underage.”
Ana, 52, then decided to share her thoughts, admitting: ‘I find so many aspects of this court decision disturbing. One is the science of it, but also the intrusion of God into government. Look, this is not Iran, we are not a republic dependent on religious beliefs.
‘There is a separation between church and state and one of the things the majority says is ‘human life cannot be unlawfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of holy God.’ Not everyone in this country believes in a holy God and you shouldn’t impose your faith on people who don’t believe in God!
“It’s a key component of being an American. The other thing is, let’s think about what an embryo is, let’s think about what a fetus is, let’s think about what a baby is. One thing that bothers me is changing the goal post.”
‘It used to be about viability, then about heart rate. Well, an embryo has neither, it is neither viable nor has a heartbeat. You know, you can freeze sperm…” Ana continued, as Sunny tried to interrupt her and talk about Christians.
“Well, the Catholic Church you belong to is against IVF!” Ana yelled at her and added, “The Catholic Church does not rule the United States and we have a separation of church and state!”
“You can freeze sperm, you can freeze eggs, you can’t freeze babies and bring them back to life!” Ana added as the live studio audience applauded her.
Trying to have the last word, Sunny claimed, “The one thing I think we’re all losing sight of is that this case came about because someone in an IVF clinic accidentally destroyed someone’s embryos.
Sara remained silent as Ana spoke up and shared her thoughts on the Alabama court ruling
Sunny (left) and Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) shared their views on abortion and confirmed that they are against it
The panel listened attentively as Ana (centre) explained that eggs and sperm can be frozen, but ‘you can’t freeze babies’
“That means that couple’s dreams… Manny and I lost our life savings trying to have children (and) if someone went in and destroyed my two embryos, they would have destroyed everything I had for five years had worked for and there must be a consequence.’
The rest of the panel agreed with Sunny, but Joy asked her, “Why does the consequence have to be written into law? Why don’t we just prosecute the people who dropped it?’
Ana then added, “But the ruling should have been negligence, not that embryos are babies that then affect every woman and every couple in Alabama and lead to less life.”
The heated exchange came just days after Sunny and Sara argued about the exact same topic on Tuesday’s show, with the latter suggesting that the courts should “tackle IVF like the rich person’s abortion.”