Yesterday, the Texas “heartbeat bill” SB8 went into effect and predictably the media freaked out over the conservative measure. MSNBC host Joy Reid brought on Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren [Massachusetts] to panic over the bill that they claimed “preyed on vulnerable women,” and had brought “the Handmaid’s Tale to America.”
On her Wednesday night show, Reid referenced the dystopian novel and tv series in her opening monologue:
“Texas clinics are now turning away patients who are more than six weeks pregnant...By next summer, we could be living in our own version of the Handmaid`s Tale, where forced birth is the law in large sections of the country, including for children,” she dramatically warned.
Shortly afterwards, she prodded Warren to agree with her that America wasn’t far from the fictional land of Gilead: “You know, people think it’s hyperbolic when I tweet about The Handmaid’s Tale coming to America. But I don’t think it seems hyperbolic now. Does it to you?” she asked.
“No,” agreed Warren, whining that this law would punish “vulnerable” poor and trans women without “alternatives” to get illegal abortions or be “forced into carrying a pregnancy that you do not want to carry.”
The MSNBC host turned her ire onto Republicans whom she fretted were “sending out vigilantes to collect $10,000 bounties on women’s heads.” Reid and her guest again claimed this law was encouraging poor women to perform dangerous illegal abortions.
Warren warned women were not going to “get the medical care, the treatment that they should be entitled to as human beings.” Not ironic at all. What about unborn female human beings?
Reid then trotted out the overused and false strawman that conservatives don’t care about women or babies after birth...because they don’t support even more government aid and control from cradle to grave (click "expand"):
REID: The other thing that really galls me about what Republicans are doing in Texas is they don`t give a damn about this -- that 13-year-old girl who`s going to be forced to raise that kid. They`re not going to provide her health care. They don`t want to provide her an education. They don`t want to help her pay for college. They don`t want that kid to get health care. They don`t want to pass the Medicaid expansion. Can you just talk about -- I mean, the fact is this, they`re leaving all of these people behind that they want born but they don`t care about them when they are born.
WARREN: That`s exactly right. This is not about providing -- look at fight we`re having right now in Congress, universal child care, just a big one, child care so that mamas and daddies can go do work, right? Women have been forced out of the work force now. One out of four women who`s been forced out of the work forces said the problem is child care. So here we are, one of the things I`m fighting for, Democrats we`re fighting for is universal child care. Do the you know how many Republicans we have who are willing to help us on that? Zero.
After all that wailing about how pro-lifers were hurting vulnerable women, amazingly, Warren and Reid ended the segment encouraging support for abortion mill Planned Parenthood, which targets vulnerable women.
“So, everybody out there who is outraged today, help Planned Parenthood,” Warren urged, with a call to encourage lawmakers to make Roe “the law of the land.”
“Amen,” Reid agreed, adding, “You can get an amen for every single word for that.”
As usual, Reid wasn’t telling the whole truth about the bill. It doesn’t ban abortions strictly by the six week timeline, but outlaws them when a fetal heartbeat can be detected and the woman’s life is not in danger. The networks hid this part that morning as well. The bill furthermore cites how while as many as 30 percent of natural pregnancies can end in a spontaneous miscarriage, only about five percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
But MSNBC and their abortion-loving media allies don’t care about science, they just want to scare Americans with hyperbolic and misleading talking points. One of these, was Reid wailing about all the victims of rape and incest who get abortions, now can’t. As I noted one of the last times Reid had a freakout over abortion “rights,” the percentage of women who get abortions due to rape is less than one percent, and less than a half a percentage due to incest, according to one study by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
Reid reciting Planned Parenthood talking points was paid for by advertiser AllState. Contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back page here.
Read the transcript below:
The ReidOut
9/2/2021
JOY REID: So, just to be clear, in Texas, you cannot mandate life saving masks to prevent the spread of COVID. You have the freedom to bring your guns into stores and restaurants and churches and even psychiatrist hospitals but women, trans and non-binary people are not allowed to make their own choices about their bodies. My body, my choice, not in Texas.
Texas clinics are now turning away patients who are more than six weeks pregnant. And according to the Guttmacher Institute, there`s going be a 20- fold increase in driving distance for Texans to reach a state where abortion is legal, something that might be impossible right now for parts of Texas that are closest to Louisiana, which is recovering from Hurricane Ida.
It seems like really slim hope to hang onto but abortion providers are still waiting on the Supreme Court to rule on their emergency application urging the justices to intervene. But their inaction so far allowing this law to go into effect, and, frankly, who`s on the conservative side on the court, well, those are terrifying harbingers of the future of Roe v Wade. As early as next month, the Supreme Court will hear a case from Mississippi that straight up argues that the case for overruling Roe, just overruling it is overwhelming.
By next summer, we could be living in our own version of the Handmaid`s Tale, where forced birth is the law in large sections of the country, including for children. 11 states have triggered laws that are just lying in wait for Roe v Wade to be over turned. And more would likely follow with 97 abortion restrictions enacted in 19 states so far this year.
Joining me now is Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. You know, people think it’s hyperbolic when I tweet about The Handmaid’s Tale coming to America. But I don’t think it seems hyperbolic now. Does it to you?
ELIZABETH WARREN: No. I lived in an America in which abortion was illegal when I was young, before Roe vs. Wade. And when abortion is illegal, rich women still get abortions. Women with resources still get abortions. Women who have time and who have friends in other places will still get abortions. So what this law is really about is not stopping abortions across the board. This is about bearing down on the most vulnerable among us. It`s bearing down on the woman or trans person or non-binary, who is working three jobs, the one who`s already stretched to the limit, the one who is a child who has just found out that she is pregnant and doesn`t know how to get organized to get herself the kind of medical treatment that she needs.
And this law says, it`s clearly trying to push in the direction, they`re going to do everything they can if you are vulnerable, if you don`t have alternatives to make sure that you are forced into carrying a pregnancy that you do not want to carry. And I just think this is fundamentally wrong. This divides people. This enables people to target abortion providers, people who give advice, people who try to help, everything to say we are going to isolate and make life as hard as possible for those who don`t have resources.
But for those who have resources, just go to Massachusetts or go to New York or go to California. Go somewhere else. And that`s going to be the kind of division we`re going to see in this country.
REID: And, you know, two things, one, you know, Michelle Goldberg was saying earlier, she was on Ari`s show and she made a really good point that the Republican Party has really embraced vigilantism as a theme. If you don`t win an elections, send the vigilantes and to just raise hell and bring a news and say, hang Mike Pence. When you don`t like abortion, send the vigilantes out to collect $10,000 bounties on women`s head.
But in addition to that Senator, poorer women are going to get abortion too. They will just going to drink poisonous stuff to get them. They`re going to hurt themselves to get them. I was reading today about a woman who's a nurse who works in other countries where woman are coming in with also sorts of internal injuries from trying to give themselves abortions. People are still going to get them, they`re just going to die trying to get them.
WARREN: And that`s the part that these folks don`t want to look at. They have constructed this alternative universe where, somehow, if we just force people to go through with these pregnancies, it will work out just fine for them. And it`s not going to work out just fine.
As you rightly say, when people are desperate enough, they will do desperate things. And that is especially true in the circumstances of abortion. You are exactly right though, Joy. How I should have described it is they are not going to get the medical care, the treatment that they should be entitled to as human beings.
REID: And you talk a lot about the economy for regular folks. You know, those of us who grew up as regular folks and know what it`s like to have the lights out because you couldn`t pay the bill, like people have never lived that where they don`t understand what that`s like, right? You know, making breakfast for dinner because it`s more affordable, like people who grew up understanding that you not being well-off, right?
The other thing that really galls me about what Republicans are doing in Texas is they don`t give a damn about this -- that 13-year-old girl who`s going to be forced to raise that kid. They`re not going to provide her health care. They don`t want to provide her an education. They don`t want to help her pay for college. They don`t want that kid to get health care. They don`t want to pass the Medicaid expansion. Can you just talk about -- I mean, the fact is this, they`re leaving all of these people behind that they want born but they don`t care about them when they are born.
WARREN: That`s exactly right. This is not about providing -- look at fight we`re having right now in Congress, universal child care, just a big one, child care so that mamas and daddies can go do work, right? Women have been forced out of the work force now. One out of four women who`s been forced out of the work forces said the problem is child care. So here we are, one of the things I`m fighting for, Democrats we`re fighting for is universal child care. Do the you know how many Republicans we have who are willing to help us on that? Zero.
REID: I`m guessing zero.
WARREN: That`s exactly right, zero. Nice round number there, because child care is not something that they support and want to work on. Housing, how many people do we have in this country right now who are -- who do not have homes, who have inadequate homes, substandard homes? How many mamas with little babies don`t have housing?
So what we want to do is we want to put some investment and we want to get people off the street, good for their health, good for the economy. We want these people to be able to have housing. How much Republican help are we getting on this? Zero. And we could just keep going through. And that`s a part of what`s wrong here. It`s part of the division. It`s a part of the prey on those who are vulnerable.
You were talking earlier about the idea, this vigilantism that not only says you get a $10,000 bounty, it also insulates from liability those who target someone and turns out to be wrong.
REID: That`s right, that`s right, that`s right.
WARREN: It turns out that they were not in violation of the statute. So think what that means, Joy. That means just get out there and shoot in any direction you want. And if it lands, you get money, and if it doesn`t land, you don`t get hurt. That is fundamentally wrong.
And, by the way, this is why Congress should step up. Let`s remember that 70 percent of Americans want to see Roe versus Wade as the law of the land. The Supreme Court is not the only one who could provide that. Congress could pass Roe versus Wade.
REID: Come on, amen.
WARREN: So, everybody out there who is outraged today, help Planned Parenthood. Help those who are trying to help people who are dealing with a difficult decision. But also push your senators, push your representatives and say, it is time that our elected representatives don`t just put in judges who are extremists, who don`t support what most Americans want, you get out there, pass the laws, protect Roe, make Roe the law of the land everywhere.
REID: Amen. Senator Elizabeth Warren. Thank you. You can get an amen for every single word for that. Thank you very much.
