On Tuesday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid invited conservative commentator and State Financial Officers Foundation Fellow Carrie Sheffield on the show to debate the recent US appeals court decision which suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Based on her past history with conservative guests, Reid was actually civil to Sheffield and let her explain herself. Unfortunately for Reid, basic biology and history were not her strong suit, as Reid disputed the fact that life begins at conception.
Sheffield explained to Reid the indisputable fact that “over 90 percent of scientists agree that immediately at conception there's a human life.” As she's done with previous conservative guests, Reid attempted to deny reality simply because a conservative said it. “No, I don't think over 90 percent of scientists believe that,” Reid falsely claimed.
Contrary to Reid's assertions, a study by the National Library of Medicine titled “The Scientific Consensus on When a Human's Life Begins,” “Biologists from 1,058 academic institutions around the world assessed survey items on when a human's life begins and, overall, 96% (5337 out of 5577) affirmed [the view that life begins at fertilization].”
Reid knew she had no facts on her side so she went off on a bizarre rant about how “abortion was not illegal until the quickening.” She then asked Sheffield if she, "want[s] abortion to be illegal in the entire country.”
Turning back to the science of when life begins, Sheffield correctly pointed out how “immediately at conception, all of the DNA is separate. It’s two separate bodies. There's no DNA from the mother that is in the child.”
“But do you want abortion to be illegal?” Reid interjected. “I believe in human rights,” Sheffield explained.
She then educated Reid on the racist roots of abortion and Planned Parenthood:
To me, abortion is as evil as slavery. It truly is. And when you look at the founding of Planned Parenthood and who Margaret Sanger was, you look at her research she was a woman who believed in eugenics. She was a woman who believed in the purification of the race, and she didn't want certain women to reproduce. I find that legacy to be deeply problematic.
Reid deflected from that uncomfortable truth by claiming “The vast majority of women, are not eugenicists. Most people probably don't even know who Margaret Sanger is. Most women just want control of their own bodies.”
The racist legacy of Planned Parenthood sadly lives on, as over 20 million black babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.
Despite what abortionists say, the science is crystal clear that life begins at conception. Every abortion is the murder of innocent human life. That is something the pro-aborts like Reid either don’t know or don’t care about.
Joy Reid’s pro-abortion advocacy on MSNBC was made possible by Liberty Mutual. Their information is linked.
The relevant transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
4/11/2023
7:13:18 p.m. EasternCARRIE SHEFFIELD: I do believe personally that, again, this is a science thing. Over 90 percent of scientists agree that immediately at conception there's a human life. There is the genus and the species–
REID: No, I don't think over 90 percent of scientists believe that. And by the way—
SHEFFIELD: It's a human life!
REID: Well, historically, even in the colonial era, in the earliest eras of this country until the quickening, until a woman could feel a child inside of her, most even religious people, most people in the colonial era, abortion was not illegal until the quickening. And so that is what the Roe standard was. But my question is, I think it's really important for people to understand where people who are on your idealogical side are coming from.
SHEFFIELD: Yeah.
REID: Do you want abortion to be illegal in the entire country? Because that is going against the views of the vast majority. I would say more than 70 to 80 percent of Americans don't want that. Do you want that?
SHEFFIELD: Well, scientifically immediately at conception, all of the DNA is separate. It’s two separate bodies. There's no DNA from the mother that is in the child—
REID: But do you want abortion to be illegal?
SHEFFIELD: I believe in human rights. To me, abortion is as evil as slavery. It truly is. And when you look at the founding of Planned Parenthood and who Margaret Sanger was, you look at her research she was a woman who believed in eugenics. She was a woman who believed in the purification of the race, and she didn't want certain women to reproduce. I find that legacy to be deeply problematic.
[crosstalk]
REID: The vast majority of women, are not eugenicists. Most people probably don't even know who Margaret Sanger is. Most women just want control of their own bodies. So my last question to you is, do you think that contraception should be illegal?
SHEFFIELD: No, and I was very concerned by that piece that you mentioned where that some people are trying to block access to birth control. I hope this can be a bipartisan area where vasectomies, why aren't we pushing for that in terms of health care coverage for men to get vasectomies and encourage them and they are thankfully reversible in the vast majority of cases. So you know, I'm Protestant. I know that some Catholics disagree with me on the birth control front, but I think that's an area, if we can focus on termination, then we can have a lot fewer conversations about—I’m sorry—prevention instead of termination.
