Pete Buttigieg and his husband became parents to twins, but some people have a problem with that

A few weeks after announcing to the world that they'd become parents, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, revealed Saturday that they'd welcomed not one but two babies to their family. Sharing the first public photo of the infants to social media, Buttigieg—the first openly gay person to be confirmed by the Senate for a Cabinet position— wrote: "Chasten and I are beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents. We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family."

While the heartwarming announcement—which came amid a nationwide debate over abortion and women's reproductive choices—would've been a good opportunity for conservatives to present the Buttigiegs as an example of why they consider adoption a better choice, Evangelical "pro-lifers" across the internet went apoplectic. They reminded us once again that when they say "adoption is an option" it doesn't apply to gay folks and that their supposedly "pro-life" politics are less about saving babies, and more about controlling people's reproductive rights. "Where are the mothers? My heart goes out to these infants," tweeted Lila Rose, anti-choice activist and founder of pro-birth charity Live Action.

"You can lose a mom or dad through death, abandonment/abuse, or by design (being intentionally brought into the world via invitro & surrogacy to be a child for a same-sex couple). It is wrong for us adults to pretend that the loss of a loving mom (or dad) won't affect the child," Rose added. The Buttigiegs' announcement even made waves overseas, with La Manif Pour Tous (LMPT), one of France's largest organizations supposedly fighting for the "traditional family," claiming in a since-deleted tweet that the couple had stolen their babies from the mother.

"How can you not be scandalized by this photo? Not content to have stolen the babies from the mother just after childbirth, these two men also took her place in the hospital bed... Think about these children who have been robbed of their mother forever," the tweet reportedly stated. Twitter user @ParisPasRose, who saved a screenshot of the tweet, was quick to point out the flaws in LMPT's allegations. "All the press specifies in black and white that the spouses Buttigieg did not use (surrogacy) but became dads of twins at the end of a process of adoption of abandoned children, but we know well the passion of the demo for all for lies and insults," they tweeted.

The Buttigiegs, who have been married for three years, had been trying to adopt for a year before they welcomed Penelope Rose and Joseph August into their lives. Speaking to The Washington Post in July, they revealed that they'd been going through home studies and parenting workshops, and writing up descriptions of their family values and ideal weekends. "They are on lists that would allow them to receive a baby who has been abandoned or surrendered at very little notice, and through lengthier processes that would allow a prospective mother to choose them in advance (although she wouldn’t know their identities). They’ve gotten close enough, on multiple occasions, to shop for baby gear and discuss names," the report stated.

"It's a really weird cycle of anger and frustration and hope," Chasten said at the time. "You think it's finally happening and you get so excited, and then it's gone." The 32-year-old revealed that he sometimes thought about what they will tell their future child: "We tried so hard for you. We waited so long for you."