{"id":41002,"date":"2024-11-08T09:48:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T14:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=41002"},"modified":"2024-11-08T09:48:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T14:48:06","slug":"christian-youtuber-takes-on-pop-star-john-legend-in-abortion-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/11\/christian-youtuber-takes-on-pop-star-john-legend-in-abortion-debate.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian YouTuber Takes on Pop Star John Legend in Abortion Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ruslan KD \/ YouTube | Inset: Featureflash Photo Agency \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christian YouTuber Ruslan and singer\/ song writer John Legend shared an exchange about abortion after Ruslan criticized comments Legend made in October. While speaking<\/a> with NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe about his wife, Chrissy Teigen\u2019s, life-saving \u201cabortion,\u201d Legend addressed his own views on the topic. \u201cI grew up in the church, and we were taught that, you know, we were supposed to be pro-life,\u201d he said. \u201cAs soon as I became an adult, I just realized that we need that choice. We don\u2019t need the government telling us what to do, and women don\u2019t need the government telling them what to do with their bodies. And life is complicated, and there are all kinds of reasons why people might want or need an abortion, and the government has no place in that decision,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Legend drew on his personal experiences when Teigen, who has struggled with fertility, suffered a miscarriage and required a D&C to remove the dying baby. Legend, however, characterized the experience as an \u201cabortion.\u201d \u201cShe was well past 15 weeks when she had to have an abortion. She was miscarrying and bleeding out. All these things were happening. Her life was in danger,\u201d he said. The experience, he said, woke him up to the kinds of decisions women need to make. \u201cEverything that happens in that room is private, and it\u2019s so intensely personal and intensely physical. A woman feels every aspect of this thing,\u201d he said. Ruslan made a response video<\/a> to Legend\u2019s comments, stating that what Legend was describing was being mischaracterized as an abortion. \u201cYou know that the pro-life position is about elective abortions. Your baby was tragically dying; your wife was miscarrying. She needed a surgical procedure called a\u00a0D&C\u00a0to take the tragedy of a dead baby inside of her out.\u201d Ruslan stated that this was an intentional conflation by abortion proponents to justify abortions by mislabeling procedures like Teigen\u2019s as \u201cabortion\u201d and accusing pro-lifers of denying women access to life-saving procedures.<\/p>\n

Legend responded to Ruslan\u2019s video on Instagram. \u201cThe \u2018pro-life\u2019 position is that the government should be involved in the most intimate decisions any woman could make. Making something illegal means the government has to enforce and adjudicate these intimate decisions and procedures. The government has the power to force someone to carry for 9 months,\u201d he wrote. He cited instances like rape and incest, where a woman would have to first prove she had been raped to even be considered eligible for an abortion. \u201cThe government has no place in the conversation.\u201d Others on the thread accused Legend of making a \u201cstraw man\u201d argument. One commentor who claimed to be a doctor wrote, D&C\u2019s were not prohibited \u201cin the case of what\u2019s called an incompetent miscarriage, where tragically, the baby isn\u2019t alive anymore but there are products left in the uterus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruslan also engaged. \u201c\u2018Making something illegal\u2019 is the same thing we do with murder, drunk driving and a variety of other laws that protect people and\u2026 LEGISLATE what you\u2019re allowed to do with your own base. So yes, the government enforces all sorts of laws,\u201d he wrote. He also stated he was not referring to rape or incest, but the specific case Legend was citing with his wife. \u201cI\u2019m speaking to you specifically using the tragedy of a miscarriage to argue for [abortion] on demand. And you, probably knowing that the [vast] amount of [abortions] are not for the mother\u2019s health, rape or incest.\u201d He asked whether or not Legend would agree with him that abortion should not be used as a form of birth control. Legend, however, refused to concede the point, saying the two were at a \u201cmoral stalemate.\u201d Legend said he did not believe a \u201cfetus\u201d has \u201cequal or more rights than the woman.\u201d Ruslan asked when someone is granted human rights. He also discussed the encounter on his channel<\/a>, with an invite to Legend to appear and have a discussion. To date, Legend has not responded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian YouTuber Ruslan and singer\/ song writer John Legend shared an exchange about abortion after Ruslan criticized comments Legend made in October. While speaking with NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe about his wife, Chrissy Teigen\u2019s, life-saving \u201cabortion,\u201d Legend addressed his own views on the topic. \u201cI grew up in the church, and we were taught…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":40987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian YouTuber Takes on Pop Star John Legend in Abortion Debate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/11\/christian-youtuber-takes-on-pop-star-john-legend-in-abortion-debate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian YouTuber Takes on Pop Star John Legend in Abortion Debate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christian YouTuber Ruslan and singer\/ song writer John Legend shared an exchange about abortion after Ruslan criticized comments Legend made in October. While speaking with NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe about his wife, Chrissy Teigen\u2019s, life-saving \u201cabortion,\u201d Legend addressed his own views on the topic. \u201cI grew up in the church, and we were taught…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/11\/christian-youtuber-takes-on-pop-star-john-legend-in-abortion-debate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-08T14:48:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/11\/ruslan-john-legend_credit-Ruslan-KD-YouTube_Inset-Featureflash-Photo-Agency-Shutterstock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian YouTuber Takes on Pop Star John Legend in Abortion Debate","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/11\/christian-youtuber-takes-on-pop-star-john-legend-in-abortion-debate.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christian YouTuber Takes on Pop Star John Legend in Abortion Debate","og_description":"Christian YouTuber Ruslan and singer\/ song writer John Legend shared an exchange about abortion after Ruslan criticized comments Legend made in October. While speaking with NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe about his wife, Chrissy Teigen\u2019s, life-saving \u201cabortion,\u201d Legend addressed his own views on the topic. \u201cI grew up in the church, and we were taught…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/11\/christian-youtuber-takes-on-pop-star-john-legend-in-abortion-debate.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2024-11-08T14:48:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/11\/ruslan-john-legend_credit-Ruslan-KD-YouTube_Inset-Featureflash-Photo-Agency-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia 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