MSNBC’s Ali Velshi took his Saturday show on the road to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to cover that state’s new pro-life law in the new post-Roe era. As part of the show, Velshi moderated an absurd panel of abortion providers and activists where the pro-lifers were summarized as a bunch miscarriage criminalizing, flat Earth, racist, transphobic, ableist birth control banners.
On the subject of miscarriages, Velshi wondered “you’re worried that women who might be having miscarriage are worried that they are going to fall into this legal system somehow. How does that play out?”
If Velshi was fear mongering, co-director of the cumbersomely named People Organizing For Women's Empowerment and Rights flat out lied, “I fully see the Alabama legislature and other state legislatures going towards the criminalization of miscarriage in general. Because if you can't prove that you didn't take mifepristone or misoprostol, the abortion drugs, then how, I mean, there’s no way for them to prove your innocence because there’s no test that can tell anyone if you took it or not, so every miscarriage is going to be investigated.”
The new Alabama law that Velshi and the panel were there to condemn explicitly says that to “remove a dead unborn child” is not an abortion.
Later in the segment, director of patient care and programs at West Alabama Women’s Center, Dr. Leah Torres lamented, “Every time that I hear “abortion ban,” I hear a ban on your bodily sovereignty.”
After comparing abortions to C-sections in that regard, Torres proclaimed, “abortion is health care, you can believe the Earth is flat, does not make it so. And so what we see now is on a government level, state by state, also the Supreme Court has decided that access to health care is not important and that the maternal mortality rate on the rise is fine. It's not fine.”
Picking up on that point, Jenice Fountain, who was described as Yellowhammer Fund’s family justice organizer added, “they know who’s going to be most affected and they're unconcerned.”
Those people are, “black and brown people, queer and trans folks, disabled folks, they’re like, they want to widen that--that-- gap between the haves and have-nots.”
After Alabama Women’s Center owner Dalton Johnson claimed the real goal is for a nationwide ban, WAWC operations director Robin Marty declared without any evidence that birth control was next, “We don't believe birth control is going to be accessible or available or legal in Alabama for too much longer because there's too much control right now because there's too much control in the legislature to overturn it.”
Alternatively, pro-lifers believe what they say they do and there’s no hidden agenda there.
This segment was sponsored by Subway.
Here is a transcript for the August 6 show:
MSNBC Velshi
8/6/2022
8:28 AM ET
ALI VELSHI: Let's talk about cases where—where-- somebody isn’t necessarily seeking an abortion, but women have medical issues during pregnancies. And--and-- you’re worried that women who might be having miscarriage are worried that they are going to fall into this legal system somehow. How does that play out?
KARI CROWE: I fully see the Alabama legislature and other state legislatures going towards the criminalization of miscarriage in general. Because if you can't prove that you didn't take mifepristone or misoprostol, the abortion drugs, then how, I mean, there’s no way for them to prove your innocence because there’s no test that can tell anyone if you took it or not, so every miscarriage is going to be investigated.
…
LEAH TORRES: Every time that I hear “abortion ban,” I hear a ban on your bodily sovereignty. For example, I cannot force somebody to have a C-section because their baby’s in trouble. I’ve actually had to watch during the labor process, a baby die in labor, because the patient did not want a C-section. I cannot force her to have a surgery that she does not consent to. That is not my call. And yet we have people in official state government positions, making those calls for people they've never met, have no interaction with, and also have no training to make those calls about—abortion is health care, you can believe the Earth is flat, does not make it so. And so what we see now is on a government level, state by state, also the Supreme Court has decided that access to health care is not important and that the maternal mortality rate on the rise is fine. It's not fine.
JENICE FOUNTAIN: They don't think it's unimportant, they know who’s going to be most affected and they're unconcerned.
TORRES: That’s right.
FOUNTAIN: So, they’re not concerned with black and brown people, queer and trans folks, disabled folks, they’re like, they want to widen that--that-- gap between the haves and have-nots. It's not that they don't care about, of course, see it as health care.
DALTON JOHNSON: If they don't think that a--that a-- nationwide ban is--is-- their ultimate goal why would you have these laws that are saying that you can't even get a referral. Okay abortion is illegal in Alabama, but you can't even talk to a patient and tell them what's state to go to or their passing over Missouri where or South Carolina where they're putting these things, you know, in place where, you know, no information can be given or you can't even drive anybody to an abortion clinic. So, why do you think they're passing these laws in the states? Because their main goal is a nationwide, a nationwide ban on abortion.
ROBIN MARTY: We don't believe birth control is going to be accessible or available or legal in Alabama for too much longer because there's too much control right now because there's too much control in the legislature to overturn it. Birth control is already extraordinarily impossible to get in Alabama. For the most part the only place that you can get it if you are low income and uninsured is from a county health department and it’s a two, three, four months with an order to get in and see somebody for it.
