Conservative US Christian groups have condemned California's Democrat governor for quoting Jesus in pro-abortion adverts.
Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted images of the billboard posters, offering abortion services in California to women in states with laws limiting use of the procedure.
One included verse 12:31 from the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus says: "Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these."
California Governor Gavin Newsom tweets an advert offering abortions to women in other states which are restricting access
Newsom is running the ads in seven other states at the expense of his gubernatorial election campaign donors.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel at the American Centre for Law and Justice and a member of former president Donald Trump's legal team, called Newsom's use of scripture "disgusting".
"The idea that Newsom is using the words of Jesus Christ, the Holy Scriptures, to promote the killing of unborn children as somehow loving and commanded by God is quite frankly disgusting," Sekulow said. "This is a blatant, political fundraising ploy to boost his own political profile and presidential aspirations. The people are smarter than that. It just won’t work."
"Wow...So murdering your innocent unborn child is somehow 'loving your neighbor'," tweeted podcast The Christian Outlook. "Let's all pray for Gavin Newsom, that he might get saved and see the value God places on every life, born and unborn."
Criticism also came from Roman Catholic clergymen and organisations — significantly as Pro-abortion Democrat President Joe Biden has regularly touted his Catholic faith to win votes.
"I think this has to be one of the worse distortions of a Bible passage I've ever seen. Shame on Gavin Newsom and his government" tweeted priest Father Matthew Schneider. "The most basic level of loving your neighbor as yourself is not killing your neighbor, yet that's exactly what abortion does."
Father Ryan Hilderbrand from Indiana, one of the states targeted by the Democrat ad campaign, called the adverts "satanic".
22 September 2022, 18:55 GMT
"Imagining the devil in his advertising office at the top of the highest skyscraper in hell giggling to himself as Gavin Newsom uses Jesus’ own words to support killing babies," tweeted 'media ministry' Catholic Answers. "No surprise here. Satan, having no imagination, can only ‘create’ by perverting the good not of his making. Likewise, it seems, for Gavin Newsom."
The US Supreme Court's decision in June this year to reverse its 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling has allowed states to enforce pre-existing or new legislation restricting access to abortion. The five-decade-old opinion stated that the 14th amendment right to privacy meant the state could not interfere between doctors and patient.