CNN At This Hour host Kate Bolduan welcomed former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards onto her Friday show to condemn the trend of Republican states passing pro-life bills and to lament that this puts the United States out of touch with the rest of the world.
Against a chyron that read “more states move to restrict reproductive rights,” Bolduan reported:
Globally, we've been seeing a trend. Globally the trend is moving in one direction which is from Colombia in February to Mexico in September to Argentina legalizing abortion in 2020. Globally it seems to be moving one way, and then in the United States, as we've been talking about all of these states, it appears to be moving the other direction.
She then asked Richards, “What do you see in that?”
Richards began by declaring, “that is the irony here,” and what is different in the U.S. is that Republicans are horrible, “the difference in this country is that the Republican Party, one of our two major parties, has made it their primary issue to end access to safe and legal abortion for their own political purposes. Access to -- to legal abortion is – is supported by people in America, all across the country, all across every party.”
That is, of course, not true. There are more pro-life Democrats than pro-choice Republicans, but Richards needs the myth of the pro-abortion Republican to claim, “the Republican Party has been completely focused on agitating on this issue in order to get a certain wing of their party to be active in politics, and that is what is really unbelievable to see is that these — these bills are not being passed because the people of Oklahoma rose up and said we don't want access to safe and legal abortion anymore.”
Richards again proved she and CNN live in bubbles when she predicted that these bills will hurt Republicans in the midterms, “It's strictly because the Republican Party has made this a priority, and the -- what is happening to women in America lies at their feet. And this is an issue that's going to have to be decided politically. I think this is an issue that is going to animate voters as we head into the midterm elections. It's unthinkable that this country would go back on 50 years of progress for women.”
Not only is it thinkable, but despite Bolduan’s premise that the U.S. is going in the opposite direction of the world, the truth is precisely the opposite. Even if Mississippi’s law is upheld by the Supreme Court, it will still be liberal than Argentina, which was one of the countries Bolduan mentioned.
This segment was sponsored by Subway
Here is a transcript for the April 29 show:
At This Hour with Kate Bolduan
4/29/2022
11:21 AM ET:
KATE BOLDUAN: Globally, we've been seeing a trend. Globally the trend is moving in one direction which is from Colombia in February to Mexico in September to Argentina legalizing abortion in 2020. Globally it seems to be moving one way, and then in the United States, as we've been talking about all of these states, it appears to be moving the other direction. What do you see in that?
CECILE RICHARDS: Well, I mean, Kate, that’s — that is the irony here. One, of course access to safe and legal abortion has been a constitutional right for women for nearly 50 years in the United States. So this is -- this Supreme Court is poised to up-end a right that most of us have grown up with having for our — our entire lifetime.
The — the difference in this country is that the Republican Party, one of our two major parties, has made it their primary issue to end access to safe and legal abortion for their own political purposes. Access to -- to legal abortion is – is supported by people in America, all across the country, all across every party.
But the Republican Party has been completely focused on agitating on this issue in order to get a certain wing of their party to be active in politics, and that is what is really unbelievable to see is that these — these bills are not being passed because the people of Oklahoma rose up and said we don't want access to safe and legal abortion anymore.
It's strictly because the Republican Party has made this a priority, and the -- what is happening to women in America lies at their feet. And this is an issue that's going to have to be decided politically. I think this is an issue that is going to animate voters as we head into the midterm elections. It's unthinkable that this country would go back on 50 years of progress for women.
