Sick Joke: Comedians Sarah Silverman, Lizz Winstead Host Telethon for Texas Abortions

November 18th, 2013 3:58 PM

Actresses, comedians, women empowerment, laughter – why it must be an abortion party!

In her latest piece, titled “Hello, Texas? Abortion Rights Calling,” The Daily Beast’s Sally Kohn advertised an telethon to raise money for “abortion services” in Texas, the “land of Wendy Davis and Jane Roe.” The Nov. 18 event boasts big names, including comedians Lizz Winstead and Sarah Silverman as well as NARAL Pro-Choice America. Oh, and hers truly, Sally Kohn.


Kohn publicized the “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can Choose” telethon to her readers: “Monday night you're invited to laugh and feel powerful” (because that’s what abortion does, right?) to unite “with millions of women across the country who trust women to make their own decisions.”

Texas, she explained, is “ground zero in the abortion fight.” “That saying ‘Don't Mess With Texas’? It has an equally threat-laden flip side: Texas shouldn't mess with women,” she warned. 

After lamenting over the 53 “anti-choice laws” recently introduced to states, she turned to Obamacare. “We should all feel appalled by the deep irony that while Republicans are trying to kill the Affordable Care Act based on their criticism that the law forces Americans to have health insurance they may not want, many of the same conservatives are trying to force women to have babies they may not want.” Obamacare, infanticide, what’s the difference?

She continued her rant, “Conservatives accuse liberals of pushing the nanny state, but there is nothing more controlling and paternalistic than restricting the decisions that women, especially low-income women of color, can make with respect to their own bodies.”

“One by one, millions of American women have been standing up and speaking up for comprehensive reproductive justice—yes, including the right to all women have an abortion if they choose,” she advocated. (She mustn’t have seen that only 26% of Americans agree abortion should be legal under any circumstance…)

The Daily Beast has produced MRC fodder before, from proclaiming that to women that in vitro is a ‘f**king good alternative’ to men to advising Americans to cut Weiner some slack for sexting (after all, teens do it all the time).