Against a background that read “Cruelty, no exceptions, ” MSNBC’s Ali Velshi warned on his Saturday show of the “dystopian” future America faces as red states pass pro-life laws in anticipation of the Supreme Court potentially overruling Roe v. Wade.
After reporting that the Utah Republican Party is considering removing exceptions for rape and incest from the party platform, Velshi warned, “It's a small, but key example of the dystopian future that could be in store for us as new ultra-conservative Trump-stacked Supreme Court appears poised to tear down the early 50-year precedent set by Roe v. Wade and radicalized anti-abortion activists take note.“
Earlier in his diatribe, Velshi began by describing a new pro-life law in Kentucky that has been blocked by a federal judge as “a tangle of restrictions that includes a ban on all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, limits on patients' access to telehealth and medication abortions, and targeted medically unnecessary new regulations for clinics.”
Velshi also warned about a similar 15 week ban coming out of Florida, which would still make Florida and Kentucky more liberal than France, and “in Oklahoma a new makes it a felony to provide abortions, punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $100,000 fine.”
Velshi also observed “There's one clause that those laws have in common. None of them include exceptions for rape or incest. Even the most onerous anti-abortion laws typically carve out exceptions for sexual violence, but not anymore.”
Instead of engaging with biological questions of when life begins and the moral reasoning that results from that, Velshi insisted Republicans are going after rape survivors, “And make no mistake, this is not an accident, this is a conscious choice, a targeting of a vulnerable population.”
Velshi’s pro-abortion antics were not complete. After finishing his monologue, he went to commercial promising to be back with “perfect experts” to help further explain alleged Republican extremism. In reality, the experts where just fellow pro-abortion activists.
This segment was sponsored by IHOP.
Here is a transcript for the April 23 show:
MSNBC Velshi
4/23/2022
9:44 AM ET
ALI VELSHI: The last two abortion clinics in Kentucky are open again after they were forced to temporarily shut down about a week ago when a new state law immediately went into effect. That law is a tangle of restrictions that includes a ban on all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, limits on patients' access to telehealth and medication abortions, and targeted medically unnecessary new regulations for clinics. On Thursday a federal judge temporarily blocked its enforcement, but Kentucky's law is one of a trio of new restrictive abortion laws that were recently signed or enacted across the United States in the same week.
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis also signed 15-week ban. In Oklahoma a new makes it a felony to provide abortions, punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $100,000 fine. It will go into effect as soon as this summer if the courts don't block it. There's one clause that those laws have in common. None of them include exceptions for rape or incest. Even the most onerous anti-abortion laws typically carve out exceptions for sexual violence, but not anymore. The anti-abortion contingent of the Republican Party has now become so radicalized that they're willing to propose, pass, and sign into law legislation targeting survivors of sexual violence for forced pregnancy and child birth.
And make no mistake, this is not an accident, this is a conscious choice, a targeting of a vulnerable population. Until a few years ago, exceptions for rape and incest were widely agreed upon publicly as policy among anti-abortion Republicans. Donald Trump and Mitt Romney voiced their support for these exceptions as recently as 2019, but today the Republican Party in Utah where Romney currently serves as senator will consider a change to its platform that explicitly removes the language regarding those exceptions. It's a small, but key example of the dystopian future that could be in store for us as new ultra-conservative Trump-stacked Supreme Court appears poised to tear down the early 50-year precedent set by Roe v. Wade and radicalized anti-abortion activists take note.
