The Ranch star Ashton Kutcher has taken to social media to clarify his thoughts on abortion, following a controversy related to a video he previously shared.
Last week, Kutcher posted a video on Facebook that many abortion opponents felt supported their stance, and they presumed that Kutcher was posting it to share a similar point-of-view.
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He has now taken to the site again to explain why he shared the video and what his actual opinions on the hot topic are.
When Ashton Kutcher comes out as pro-life, you know the other side is worried. Bravo, Ashton! We need your voice! //t.co/Fh6d3AoajP
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) February 1, 2019
“It seems my posting of Frank Stephen’s moving testimony has turned into a partisan recruiting campaign. Stop! Let’s make it a thinking campaign,” he began. “I don’t see the issue of embryonic screening as a simple pro-life vs. pro-choice issue.”
“In fact, I really don’t see abortion as a simple black and white issue,” Kutcher continued. “There are nuances to both arguments, and as with most things, in this bipartisan political and media landscape – we like to over-simplify complicated issues into 2 base arguments and pick sides. Then we recruit people to our side that we celebrate or we publicly troll those who oppose.”
“We are genetically diverse as a species by design, for generational survival, and should think very carefully about how we regulate these sciences,” the actor went on to say. “This idea of non-dominant outcomes being inferior and non-desirable traits being negative, and then selected – is a very slippery slope that looks a lot like embryonic eugenics and that scares me.”
“To be clear, I am generally against the government regulating a woman’s medical choices. The Government is not a church. There is a reason why this topic has had decades of political debate. It’s because it’s not black and white, or red and blue. It’s grey, it’s nuanced, it’s complicated, and because of science, it’s changing,” Kutcher’s statement concluded. “So let’s stops recruiting captains for our teams and start unpacking the complications to make the best choices for our future.”
The original video in question was one that included Special Olympian and actor Frank Stephens delivering a speech to Congress in 2017.
“Sadly, across the world, a notion is being sold that maybe we don’t need research concerning Down syndrome,” Stephens says in the clip. “Some people say prenatal screenings will identify Down syndrome in the womb, and those pregnancies will just be terminated.”
This is not the only controversy that Kutcher has been caught up in lately, as he also recently came under fire for partying with his ex The Ranch co-star Danny Masterson, who was fired from the series after past sexual assault allegations against the actor re-emerged.
