Sara Haines Fires Back At Sunny Hostin During Tense Debate About Embryos As Human Life On ‘The View’: “This Is Science, Sunny!”

As far as The View hosts go, Sara Haines is rarely first of mind when it comes to riling up the Hot Topics table. And yet, she did just that on this morning’s episode when she got into a fiery discussion with Sunny Hostin over whether embryos are considered human life.

The thorny debate arose from news that Alabama politicians are planning to “protect” in vitro fertilization after the state’s supreme court ruled that embryos should be considered children, per CNN.

Hostin kicked off The View‘s chat about the ruling with the controversial claim that Republicans are in support of IVF because it is an expensive procedure more readily available to a wealthy, white population.

She accused right wing lawmakers of “not saying the quiet part out loud,” adding, “they want IVF … they want to have more American white children born because the birth rate has gone down.”

But Haines quickly jumped in to disagree, telling her co-host, “I don’t see this as a race issue. What I see is, until it affects them they don’t care … when it hits the ‘haves’ in the face, because all of their wives want to go have babies, that’s when they make change.”

She added, “That’s not a race thing, that’s a money thing.”

Haines also got technical with her argument, even using a prop on the table to demonstrate.

“We talked about how egregious a six-week [abortion] ban was. A fertilized embryo is three to five days old. It is the size of the pen there,” she said, pointing to the very tip of the pen in her hand. “It is not alive outside of a uterus. It has no organs. It is not a life yet. It is not viable until it is 24 weeks.”

Hostin cut in to tell her, “You may not think that,” and while Haines could be heard protesting “No,” she continued, “there are at least fifty percent of Americans…”

But an exasperated Haines couldn’t help herself, exclaiming, “This is science, Sunny!”

Undeterred, Hostin continued, “Fifty percent of Americans believe that a human embryo is a baby. I am one of those.”

When Haines replied, “Let me just check you again on the terminology,” Hostin reminded her, “I went through IVF.”

Still, Haines told her, “Wait one second. Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that the facts change. The embryo is an embryo until ten weeks, when it becomes a fetus. A fetus is not viable until 24 weeks. If we’re going to use science, let’s use scientific terms. That’s what that is.”

Haines’ biology lesson didn’t stick with Hostin, though, who firmly replied, “An embryo is the beginning of human life.”

Looks like these two won’t be agreeing on this topic any time soon. Let’s at least hope they hugged and made up during the commercial break.

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.