Pop Culture·By Nancy Flanders
Commenters distort actress Alexa PenaVega’s past remarks on abortion
Nearly two years after actress and pro-lifer Alexa PenaVega shared her thoughts on abortion at a Live Action fundraising gala, the pro-abortion crowd is attacking her for things she never actually claimed.
Key Takeaways:
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Actress and pro-lifer Alex PenaVega is a vocal supporter of preborn children and the pro-life cause.
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A comment she made in 2024 has now resurfaced and is being misrepresented.
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She is receiving criticism for voicing her opinion about the similarities between domestic violence and induced abortion.
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Most of those who criticized failed to argue that abortion is not killing.
The Backstory:
Actress Alexa PenaVega, who rocketed to fame as a child star with the Spy Kids franchise, has been a vocal supporter of preborn babies for years and, as a recent BuzzFeed article about some of her previous pro-life comments states, she considers herself “hardcore pro-life.”
In early 2024, PenaVega and her husband suffered the loss of their daughter, Indy, to stillbirth. The couple openly shared how painful and difficult the loss affected them.
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Later that year, PenaVega attended the 2024 Live Action gala, during which she was asked how we can build a culture in which society rallies around women who choose life.
She answered in a very open, honest, and vulnerable way, condemning both domestic violence and abortion:
“My best friend — my husband and I met at his Bible study. He’s a refugee from Afghanistan, and when we were talking about what it was like for him growing up in Afghanistan, where he came from, if the wives ever got ‘out of hand’ the husbands would beat them to ‘sort them out,’ as they would say. It was a very cultural norm. Nobody considered it bad.
When they all came over to America as refugees, they were getting arrested like crazy because the wives were turning them in because here, culturally, it’s unacceptable.
That’s what’s happening with abortion. We’re culturally accepting it, but we would never accept wife beating, right? What’s the difference? They’re both horrible, horrible things and one is truly ending a life.
We just need to reshape our culture. How do we get past that? It literally takes one person to be brave and to move forward and speak on it.”
Live Action released a video clip of this quote in October of 2024, and BuzzFeed is now sharing that the clip “resurfaced on Reddit,” where PenaVega is being criticized by individuals who are misrepresenting her comments.
The Details:
The Reddit poster shared the video and said, “Alexa pena vega compares being pro-choice to endorsing domestic violence. Then claims no one dies/really gets hurt from DV.”
However, this claim completely misconstrues what PenaVega was saying when she drew a comparison between domestic violence and abortion. She said they are both “horrible” but that abortion “is truly ending a life.”
This doesn’t mean that PenaVega is ignoring that domestic violence can and does sometimes end in the death of the victim. She’s saying that just as we condemn domestic violence, we must also condemn abortion because they are both forms of violence andtheentire intentof abortion is to end someone’s life.
In addition, commenters arguing that ‘women die from domestic violence too’ does nothing to prove that abortion doesn’t kill people.
But most people only focused on misrepresenting what PenaVega said to avoid the truth that abortion does, in fact, kill human beings.
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Missing the point
Commenters did not hold back their dislike for PenaVega, but in doing so, they proved that they missed the point:
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“Her and her husband are massive losers. Also, my sister was murdered by her partner, DV had been an ongoing issue. Alexa is an ignorant b****.”
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“Domestic violence can definitely end lives. Don’t minimize it.”
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“It’s so bad to say DV doesn’t take lives.”
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“Wow. A lot of DV victims would disagree with this sentiment but a lot of them actually can’t since their partners murdered them. Such a beyond dumb and dangerous take.”
Again, PenaVega never minimized domestic violence or claimed that women don’t die as a result; she said that if we are against domestic violence — as we should be — we should also be against abortion. They are both acts of violence, and onealways intendsto kill.
Another commenter oddly wrote, “… she doesn’t employ any logic at all. She just says ‘abortion is like wife beating, what’s the difference? They’re both bad but one is acceptable!’ Like how the f*** can you compare two completely different things and say they’re the same. Genuine insanity.”
But PenaVega never said wife beating is acceptable. She said just because a certain culture mightbelieve it to be acceptable doesn’t make it so — just like abortion in the United States.
In the BuzzFeed article, comments were even worse than on Reddit:
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“It’s also ridiculous that she would compare domestic violence to abortion. Abortion saves women’s lives, domestic violence destroys them. She’s nuts!”
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“As for Domestic Violence, that’s literally hurting someone because you can and may even want to.”
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“She and her husband are beyond dumb.”
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“Devout Christian” generally means a racist, sexist, xenophobic, anti-LGBTQ MAGAT. I am sure this b*tch checks all boxes.”
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“It’s so ironic because in their minds, being Christian means being morally good. But they don’t even give a sh*t about the babies who are actually alive lol”
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“Her kids should be taken away, disgusting”
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“Honestly, what a pathetic, washed-up, disgusting loser. Imagine believing that women shouldn’t have the right to choose nor have bodily autonomy. F*ck her. White Christian nationalists are some of the biggest hypocrites in the world. They claim that they follow good ol’ traditional values found in the Bible yet spit in the face of pro-choice women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQIA + and other minorities. They claim that a fetus is a living, breathing human yet I don’t see them f***ing adopting or fostering children who need a home.”
Getting the Facts
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Pro-life organizations support women and children (who are largely economically disadvantaged, by the way) by supplying them with free education classes, free childcare, free housing, free material goods, free baby formula, access to healthcare, and more. This support often continues for two years or more after the child is born. Sometimes help is even offered for older siblings.
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Religious conservatives and churchgoers adopt and foster children at significantly higher rates than those who consider themselves liberal. According to a national survey, “Compared to those who are Agnostic, Atheist or No Faith, Christians are more likely to have adopted (nearly 2X) or to have fostered (more than 3X). This holds true in relation to other faiths also, with Christians having adopted or fostered nearly twice as often.”
Commenters also showed a complete misunderstanding of what an induced abortion is:
I’m guessing she had a D and C following her st*llbirth. The very thing that kept her alive, she’s wanting to deny others. She’d say, her case was different. Rich, entitled people with access to health care always say that. If she were truly Christian she’d care about women’s health.
A D&C is a procedure routinely used for legitimate medical purposes such as miscarriage care and to remove uterine tissue or polyps to diagnose abnormal bleeding.
But it can also be used to intentionally kill a preborn child in an induced abortion, which is a morally wrong way to use this procedure. This specific use — to intentionally kill — is what is prohibited in states that protect preborn children from the violence of abortion.
It is not D&Cs that are prohibited, but the use of a D&C to kill. Just like using a scalpel during surgery is not prohibited, but using one to intentionally kill someone is.
The Bottom Line:
PenaVega has bravely decided to speak up for the preborn children who can’t speak for themselves. She clearly compared one cultural norm to another while arguing that both are wrong. Pro-lifers should show her support as she faces this pushback.
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