The View’s Sunny Hostin has engaged in yet another heated on-air spat with her cohost, Sara Haines, as the duo clashed again over Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos are children.
Sara, 46, became visibly frustrated with mother-of-two Sunny on Friday’s episode of the ABC show as they argued over the viability of an embryo and whether or not it should be defined as ‘life,’ with the blonde TV star telling the latter: ‘If we’re gonna 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, via IVF, but mother-of-three Sara was having none of it and fired back that an embryo was ‘not a child.’
At one point, Ana Navarro joined in on the conversation and reminded Catholic Sunny ‘the church that you’re a member of is against IVF,’ and then shouted: ‘Let me finish,’ as the lawyer attempted to interrupt her mid-sentence.
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 1 Sara Haines on Friday's episode of The View](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/16/81638727-13118555-image-m-4_1708707359736.jpg)
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 3 Sunny Hostin during Friday's episode of The View](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/16/81638725-13118555-image-m-5_1708707374302.jpg)
Sara Haines and Sunny Hostin (right) became embroiled in another heated spat during Friday’s episode of The View
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 5 Sara became very passionate as she shared her views on the viability of embryos as Joy Behar (left) looked on](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/16/81638729-13118555-image-m-8_1708707469290.jpg)
Sara became very passionate as she shared her views on the viability of embryos as Joy Behar (left) looked on
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 7 Ana Navarro joined in on the debate and yelled at Sunny: 'Let me finish!' after she attempted to interrupt her](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/17/81639769-13118555-image-m-12_1708708900548.jpg)
Ana Navarro joined in on the debate and yelled at Sunny: ‘Let me finish!’ after she attempted to interrupt her
The sensitive debate stemmed from the Alabama ruling which came about from a lawsuit that was brought 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 ground.
Alabama’s Supreme Court has now ruled that the patient who mistakenly destroyed the embryos can be sued under the state constitution’s wrongful death of a minor act, which Sara completely disagrees with.
‘A fertilized embryos is three to five days old. It is the size of the pin right there,’ she said as she used the tip of her pen as an example. ‘It is not alive outside of a uterus. It has no organs. It is not a life yet. It is not viable until it’s 24 weeks….’
Sunny attempted to butt in and said: ‘You may not think that. There are at least 50 per cent of Americans…,’ but Sara was having none of it and fumed: ‘This is science, Sunny! This is science!’
‘Fifty per cent of Americans believe that a human embryo is a baby, I am one of those,’ Sunny continued as Sara fired back: ‘Well let me just check you on the terminology! The embryo is an embryo until 10 weeks when it becomes a fetus. A fetus is not viable until it’s 24 weeks.
‘If we’re gonna use science, let’s use scientific terms, that’s what that is!’ Sara added as Sunny mentioned her own IVF experience again, to which her cohost replied bluntly: ‘That doesn’t mean facts change!’
‘An embryo is the beginning of human life and I know this…,’ Sunny then said, as cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in and asked her: ‘But then why do you support abortion if you believe that?’
‘Oh I do not support abortion,’ Sunny fired back. ‘I’ve said this over and over again. I believe that the Government shouldn’t be involved in women’s reproductive health but I believe that abortion is wrong and I also believe – not only through my faith – but through my experience of having two embryos implanted in my body.
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 9 Mother-of-two Sunny, who conceived her kids via IVF, argued that 'an embryo is the beginning of human life'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/17/81638731-13118555-image-m-10_1708708617259.jpg)
Mother-of-two Sunny, who conceived her kids via IVF, argued that ‘an embryo is the beginning of human life’
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 11 Ana reminded Sunny that the Catholic Church that she is a member of is 'against IVF'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/17/81639837-13118555-image-m-14_1708708971641.jpg)
Ana reminded Sunny that the Catholic Church that she is a member of is ‘against IVF’
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 13 Mother-of-three Sara used the tip of her pen to demonstrate how small an embryo is at three to five days old](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/17/81638723-13118555-image-m-29_1708709875792.jpg)
Mother-of-three Sara used the tip of her pen to demonstrate how small an embryo is at three to five days old
‘I have a 21-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter that my life would not be the same without them. And so if someone destroyed my embryos I would feel like someone destroyed…,’ Sunny added, as Sara replied sarcastically: ‘Problematic but not a minor.’
Ana, 52, then decided to share her thoughts and admitted: ‘I find so many aspects of this court ruling to be disturbing. One is the science of it but also the getting God inside of government. Look, this is not Iran, we are not a republic that hinges on religious beliefs.
‘There is a separation of church and state and one of the things that the majority opinion says is, “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of holy God.” Not everybody in this country believes in a holy God and you should not be imposing your beliefs on those people who don’t believe in God!
‘It is a key component to being 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 and one thing that bothers me is the changing of the goal post.’
‘It used to be about viability, then it was about heartbeat. Well, an embryo has neither of them, it’s neither viable nor has a heartbeat. You know, you can freeze sperm…’ Ana continued, as Sunny attempted to interrupt her and talk about Christians.
‘Well, the Catholic Church that you’re a member of is against IVF!’ Ana yelled at her, and then 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.
Sunny attempted to have the final say and claimed: ‘The one thing that I think we’re all losing sight of, this case came about because a person at an IVF clinic accidentally destroyed someone’s embryos.
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 15 Sara stayed silent as Ana spoke up and shared her opinion on the Alabama court ruling](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/17/81639767-13118555-image-a-27_1708709860553.jpg)
Sara stayed silent as Ana spoke up and shared her opinion on the Alabama court ruling
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 17 Sunny (left) and Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) shared their views on abortion and confirmed that they are against it](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/17/81639779-13118555-image-a-26_1708709855729.jpg)
Sunny (left) and Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) shared their views on abortion and confirmed that they are against it
![Sara Haines of The View argues with Sunny Hostin of Catholic faith on Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling in intense debate, with Ana Navarro exclaiming: 'Babies can't be frozen!' 19 The panel listened intently as Ana (middle) explained that eggs and sperm can be frozen but 'you can't freeze babies'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/17/81640611-13118555-image-m-31_1708710105693.jpg)
The panel listened intently as Ana (middle) explained that eggs and sperm can be frozen but ‘you can’t freeze babies’
‘That means that couple’s dreams… Manny and I, we lost our life savings trying to have children [and] if someone went in and destroyed my two embryos, they would have destroyed everything that I had been working for for five years and there has to be a consequence to that.’
The rest of the panel agreed with Sunny, but Joy asked her: ‘Why does the consequence have to be in the law? Why not just prosecute those people who dropped it?’
Ana then added: ‘But the ruling should have been negligence, not embryos are babies that then affects every woman and every couple in Alabama and it is leading to less life.’
The heated discussion came just a couple of days after Sunny and Sara butted heads over the exact same topic during Tuesday’s show, with the latter suggesting that the courts should ‘go after IVF as the rich person’s abortion’.