Filling in on Friday's The ReidOut on MSNBC, host Tiffany Cross led a one-sided discussion to decry Mississippi's effort to promote rights for unborn babies by trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Invoking the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale, Cross derided Justice Amy Coney Barrett this way: "There's a real live handmaiden on the Supreme Court. It feels like we're 10 minutes from living in Gilead." The host fearmongered about an America without abortion clinics and hinted that it would be fine if abortion clinics were as widespread as Starbucks coffee shops.
Cross opened the segment by complaining that Republicans have been arguing that Americans have a right to not get vaccinated even while opposing legal abortion, and then gave a forum to two pro-abortion guests to defend the practice. After Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson complained that women would have to go to more effort to reach an abortion provider if Roe v. Wade were overturned, Cross jumped in to paint a dire picture of an America that protects unborn babies:
Yeah, I mean, I'm just going to be a little more graphic so people understand, I mean, we're going back to coat hangers and seedy hotels and women being killed by bootleg, you know, seedy doctors claiming to be able to help them. That is not what we want in a society that claims to care about women. Maria, I will tell you, the thing that really bothers me is this is not about the protection of fetus or children.
She further took a shot at Mississippi as she added:
Mississippi, according to U.S. News World and Report, they rank dead last in health care. In the economy, they rank 48th. They also rank 48th in infrastructure. This is from the same crowd -- the Republican conservative crowd -- who cheered on kids in cages, who said, "We don't care about people showing up at the border -- desperate mothers and children seeking refuge -- how can we take them seriously when it comes comes to agency over our own bodies?
After Johnson misleadingly claimed that Roe v. Wade is popular with the public, Cross made a crack about the conservative religious views of Justice Barrett:
When it comes to the Supreme Court, I'm terrified that the Supreme Court may actually overturn Roe v. Wade, I know this argument has been going on for a long time. There's a real live handmaiden on the Supreme Court. It feels like we're 10 minutes from living in Gilead. Do you think the Supreme Court will take up this case and potentially overturn a law that was so consequential in 1973?
She soon wrapped up the segment by theorizing that abortion clinics would be as commonplace as Starbucks if men also became pregnant: "I venture to say, if men could get pregnant, perhaps abortion clinics would be like Starbucks everywhere."
This episode of The ReidOut was sponsored in part by Fubo TV. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC's The ReidOut
July 23, 2021
7:22 p.m. Eastern
TIFFANY CROSS: Oh, yeah, the right has been all about "my body, my choice" when it comes to vaccines and masks, but conveniently that personal freedom does not apply to abortion. They've been trying to overturn Roe v. Wade ever since abortion became legal in 1973. And now, thanks to Trump and Mitch McConnell's successful efforts to install conservative justices on the Supreme Court -- and lower courts quite frankly -- they may finally get their chance despite the fact that a majority of Americans support abortion rights. In a filing yesterday, lawyers for the state of Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade as well as a later case -- Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Now, they wrote that the case for overturning Roe and Casey is overwhelming. ... But Mississippi is far from the only state where Republicans are trying take away a woman's right to choose. This year alone, 97 abortion restrictions have been enacted in 19 states, and 10 states have laws banning all or nearly all abortions. Now, those laws would be triggered if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Joining me now, Alexis Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America; and my pal, Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino.
Ladies, I'm so happy to have you here. You know, I'm going to start with you, Alexis, because I don't think people understand that you are not going to force a woman to carry a child to term if that is not her choice. I want you to take a moment and explain to our viewers what a society looks like when abortion is outlawed everywhere.
ALEXIS MCGILL JOHNSON, PRESIDENT & CEO OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Oh, well, you're absolutely right. I mean, it is, it is not going to stop people from seeking access to abortion, it means they will have less access to safe abortion. It means they will have to travel, you know, many miles out of state in to other states with other restrictions. If Roe is overturned because of this -- this case -- and clearly Mississippi's attorney general has said the quiet parts out loud -- what we are looking at is roughly 25 million women living in approximately 26 states that are poised to outlaw abortion outright, and so it continues to mean that our control over our bodies -- this is always about our control, right? It's never been about choice. It's been about whether or not we can control or the state can control our bodies to force pregnancy in cases where people decided that they did not want to be pregnant.
CROSS: Yeah, I mean, I'm just going to be a little more graphic so people understand, I mean, we're going back to coat hangers and seedy hotels and women being killed by bootleg, you know, seedy doctors claiming to be able to help them. That is not what we want in a society that claims to care about women. Maria, I will tell you, the thing that really bothers me is this is not about the protection of fetus or children.
Mississippi, according to U.S. News World and Report, they rank dead last in health care. In the economy, they rank 48th. They also rank 48th in infrastructure. This is from the same crowd -- the Republican conservative crowd -- who cheered on kids in cages, who
said, "We don't care about people showing up at the border -- desperate mothers and children seeking refuge -- how can we take them seriously when it comes comes to agency over our own bodies?(...)
MCGILLIS: Well, I think it is about the will of the people, and I actually think polling in this regard actually can be very instructive because we know that 80 percent of Americans believe that Roe should be the law of the land, and there is literally no state where banning abortion is popular even in these states that are putting up the most unconstitutional blatant restrictions on access to abortion.
(...)
CROSS: When it comes to the Supreme Court, I'm terrified that the Supreme Court may actually overturn Roe v. Wade, I know this argument has been going on for a long time. There's a real live handmaiden on the Supreme Court -- it feels like we're 10 minutes from living in Gilead. Do you think the Supreme Court will take up this case and potentially overturn a law that was so consequential in 1973?
(MARIA TERESA KUMAR)
CROSS: I venture to say, if men could get pregnant, perhaps abortion clinics would be like Starbucks everywhere.
