While on The Axe Files podcast with CNN’s David Axelrod April 16, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told listeners that abortion is an essential service and a woman’s decision to abort her child is “life-sustaining.”

“We stopped elective surgeries here in Michigan,” she said. “Some people have tried to say that that [abortion] is considered the same, and that’s ridiculous.

“A woman’s health care, her whole future, her ability to decide if and when she starts a family is not an election, it is fundamental to her life,” she added. “It is life-sustaining, and it’s something that government should not be getting in the middle of.”

But Christians who believe Biblical teaching also believe that God is the creator of human life from conception (Psalm 139) and has made each person in His image (Genesis 1:27).

Franklin Graham responded to Whitmer’s assertion on Facebook: “That is some kind of ridiculous rationale. Doesn’t she realize that abortions are life-ending, not life-sustaining? Doesn’t she realize that one day she will stand before God and have to give an account for the lives taken by abortion on her watch? I hope she will wake up and realize the deception she has come under and that she will reverse the course she has set for her state.”

Right to Life Michigan similarly posted, “No, Governor Whitmer, abortion is not life-sustaining, it’s the number one cause of death in America.”

Whitmer, longtime Planned Parenthood advocate and rumored potential running mate for Joe Biden, stepped into the national spotlight last month when she criticized the federal government’s inability to provide states with sufficient amounts of personal protective equipment for medical workers.

But by continuing to allow abortion facilities to operate during the pandemic, Whitmer herself is contributing to her state’s shortage of PPE for those treating COVID-19 patients.

“If a lack of enough personal protective equipment is the reason that many surgeries remain postponed or canceled, then it’s heinous that Gov. Whitmer is allowing abortion facilities to continue using up these precious supplies in surgical abortions and ultrasound examinations prior to medication abortions,” Barb Listing, president of Right to Life Michigan, argued in a statement.

Whitmer has also come under fire in recent weeks for what some Michigan residents consider overly restrictive stay-at-home orders.

On April 15, thousands of Michiganders flooded the state capitol in protest of Whitmer’s orders, with some chanting “lock her up.” That same day, four Michigan county sheriffs released a statement announcing their refusal to strictly enforce the governor’s orders, arguing that Whitmer is “overstepping her executive authority.”

Above: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state in Lansing, Michigan, regarding coronavirus restrictions on Monday, April 20, 2020.

Photo: Michigan Office of the Governor via AP, Pool