Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, was joined by abortion activists Shannon Brewer and NARAL president Mini Timmaraju to discuss the second anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. While the three lamented the decision and its effects throughout the country, Timmaraju outrageously claimed that the U.S. had consequently become a “segregated society.”
To open the segment, Reid played a video of Vice President Kamala Harris audaciously proclaiming, “In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.” She then cited a statistic from Planned Parenthood to demonstrate the apparent “cruelty of the post-Dobbs world” which allowed “21 states [to enact] some form of abortion ban…more than 28 million women, trans, and nonbinary people of reproductive age live in them.”
It was interesting to watch even a liberal like Reid struggle with the left’s ridiculous woke gender terms. She evidently gave up on the proper, all-inclusive language and settled on (correctly) referring to them as women for the remainder of the segment.
Like most of Reid’s guests, this panel adored their racial allusions, with Timmaraju, of course, stating: “What you're seeing now is we're essentially living in a segregated society again. We have states rights and states where you can live as a pregnant person with freedoms and states where you cannot.” For her part, the host referred to the “disproportionate impact” of the decision on women of color:
This is the statistics as far as the disproportionate impact of the end of Roe. Black women–this is the percentage of reproductive age women who live in states with abortion bans. 54 percent of black women live in states with reproduction–with abortion bans. 42 percent of Hispanic women, 24 percent of Asian American women, and 7 percent of indigenous women.
Hypocrisy abounds as they conveniently omitted the disturbing history of pro-abortion organizations like their beloved Planned Parenthood, which outspoken racist and eugenicist Margaret Sanger founded.
Timmaraju invoked a “moral obligation” of “fight[ing] for a federal bill, a federal protection so that we have laws across all 50 states and women are protected,” practically characterizing women seeking abortions as heroines for “having to go from state to state and risk[ing] your life.”
Turning to Brewer, Reid vented her indignation at the fact that males held “overwhelming membership” in legislatures that decided on abortion rights. Her guest immediately agreed and falsely suggested that the pro-life cause was almost exclusively championed by men:
That's who you see standing outside of these clinics. You see a few women but the majority of people out there are men. These are the ones who really want it to be the way it is. They want women at home. They want you at home and having babies. They truly believe that that is how it should be. And they'll fight for it.
Towards the close, Brewer and Reid pushed the tired narrative of the Supreme Court’s partisan bias, pathetically expressing displeasure in the unanimous Mifepristone case decision, a clear win for the pro-abortion movement. Instead, the miserable pair insisted that the justices were politically motivated in light of the upcoming election.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
6/24/2024
07:34:34 PM EST[Cuts to video]
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: This is a healthcare crisis. And we all know who is to blame. Donald Trump. [transition] Trump has not denied, much less shown remorse, for his actions. Instead, he, quote, “proudly” takes credit for overturning Roe. [transition] In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.
[Cuts back to live]
JOY REID: Today marks two years since Donald Trump's hand-picked Supreme Court justices ripped away abortion rights from millions of American women, overturning Roe v. Wade with their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. Since then, the cruelty of the post-Dobbs world has impacted people all across this country. New data from Planned Parenthood shows that since Dobbs, 21 states have enacted some form of abortion ban and more than 28 million women, trans, and nonbinary people of reproductive age live in them. That is nearly 43 percent of all women of reproductive age nationwide. And we’ve heard directly from women affected by those bans.
[Cuts to video]
KATE COX: My state chose to drive me out of my home, my community, away from my children, my doctors, rather than to let me access care.
[Transition]
AMANDA ZURAWSKI: I couldn't leave the state, and if I had, I probably would have died. So I had to just wait until I did become near death. It took three days, and the trauma of that waiting and being in terror and fear for those three days, I mean, it's cruel. It is inhumane.
[Transition]
ANYA COOK: Her heart was still beating, but they told me that at that point, because I had lost all my fluid, there's nothing that I can do. So I looked at him, I said, “Okay, so what are you going to do? Are you going to–what are we supposed to do, are we terminating?” He said, “We can't do anything.” I said, “Excuse me? You can't do anything? What does that mean exactly?” He says, “We can't do anything.”
[Cuts back to live]
REID: Joining me now is Shannon Brewer, former director of the Jackson Women's Health Organization in Mississippi, the plaintiffs in the Dobbs case. She is now the executive director of the Las Cruces Women's Health Organization in New Mexico. And Mini T–Mini–Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All.
Thank you both for being here. I do want to go to you, Shannon Brewer, and just ask you to reflect on two years without Roe. What has been the impact on women and the women that you work with now?
SHANNON BREWER: Hmm. In two years…the biggest impact I’ve seen is women having to travel so far to these different states. It has not deterred a lot of women, I must tell you that. It has–it’s hurt women as far as having to find places where they can get adequate care. And that's what I’ve been–we’ve been dealing with basically for two years and we're still dealing with it every single day.
REID: I mean, you operated the Pink House in Mississippi for a really long time. When you talk to folks back in Mississippi, because they're also a state where maternal mortality is high, particularly among black women, where healthcare is hard to find–there's no expansion of Obamacare, there’s not a lot of resources there’s offered to women. What are women in Mississippi dealing with?
BREWER: I don't know exactly what all they're dealing with, but the women that we talk to, they’re unfortunately some are dealing with the fact that they have to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, that they cannot afford, you know, care for–to care for as far as the insurance, Medicaid, child care, so you have a lot of women, you have a lot of underage girls that are having to have unwanted pregnancies and unwanted children, unfortunately. And that's–I don't understand how that makes sense still–two years later, I still don't understand how that is a better option for these people.
REID: Yeah. Mini Timmaraju, talk about the national impact that you’ve seen for women in this country.
MINI TIMMARAJU: Well, you know, it's been devastating. As you pointed out, 21 states have bans and restrictions and folks in places like Mississippi having to go all the way to places like New Mexico. What you're seeing now is we're essentially living in a segregated society again. We have states rights and states where you can live as a pregnant person with freedoms and states where you cannot. And you're seeing the real life consequences of elections.
You know, in New Mexico, you have Governor Lujan Grisham who has really expanded access and created opportunity. You know, I was at the event, this morning, with the Vice President. I got to hear from Kate Cox. You know, she talked about the devastation she's faced in her life at her home state of Texas.
What's next for us as a movement is we gotta fight for a federal bill, a federal protection so that we have laws across all 50 states and women are protected because right now, having to go from state to state and risk your life and be forced into pregnancies that you don't want, it's untenable. And we cannot continue this way. So, we have a moral obligation to get this done.
REID: Yeah, especially if you're a child and they forced children to have to flee their states as well because they were raped and pregnant. Here's the new ad that the Biden/Harris campaign is running. And they rolled it out today.
[Cuts to video]
KAITLYN JOSHUA: I was right around 11 weeks when I had a miscarriage. The pain that I was feeling was excruciating. I was turned away from two emergency rooms. That was a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade. He's now a convicted felon. Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions but he will let women and doctors be punished.
[Cuts back to live]
REID: Shannon, this is the statistics as far as the disproportionate impact of the end of Roe. Black women–this is the percentage of reproductive age women who live in states with abortion bans. 54 percent of black women live in states with reproduction–with abortion bans. 42 percent of Hispanic women, 24 percent of Asian American women, and 7 percent of indigenous women.
The disproportionate impact has been heavily on people like Caitlin Joshua, who we just saw in that ad. Can you talk about that?
BREWER: Yes, that's so true. That doesn't surprise me at all. This is exactly what's going on, is that it's affect–the people that it's affecting the most are the people who actually need this the most. Yeah.
REID: And let me tell you, Mini, that, you know, Donald Trump is not sorry. It’s like, he’s bragging about it. This is his brag. He said it was an “amazing” thing to end Roe v. Wade. He said this at an Evangelical conference. He says it should be left up to the states.
Has leaving it up to the states made things–made abortion rates go down? Have–I mean, it has gone down at least to some extent because people can't get access to them, but has–has that solved the Evangelicals' wish of making abortion go away?
TIMMARAJU: You know, it's so interesting. Donald Trump just can't help himself, right? He keeps bragging about overturning Roe because it was a major achievement for that administration, because he's completely aligned with these extremist right-wing demagogues and these folks who really believe that abortion should not happen in this country and they're not stopping.
You know, you’ve covered this, but it's really important for folks to understand should there be a second Trump administration, they're not gonna stop at leaving this to the states. They're going to pursue a national abortion ban and they're going after contraception and IVF because that's always been the end game. But look, when Donald Trump says leave it up to the states, he means let the–let the chaos continue in places like Mississippi, Florida, Texas, and he's fine with that, and his movement behind him is fine with that.
And that's why actually today, we announced a broad coalition of reproductive rights health and justice groups including those reproductive justice organizations led by black and brown, indigenous women to make major investments in Get Out the Vote and voter education campaigns to make sure folks understand the stakes and what's happening in this country so we can have a federal solution, because Donald Trump leaving it up to the states, it's not going to end well for us. And we’ve already seen the devastation that’s wrought in just two short years.
REID: Yeah.
BREWER: Yes.
REID: And Shannon, last word to you. What do you make of the fact that most of these laws are being passed by legislatures where men are the overwhelming membership of these legislatures? So, it's largely men passing these laws banning abortion for women and girls.
BREWER: That's not surprising. That's what I’ve been seeing long before Roe v. Wade was overturned in Mississippi. That's who you see standing outside of these clinics. You see a few women but the majority of people out there are men. These are the ones who really want it to be the way it is. They want women at home. They want you at home and having babies. They truly believe that that is how it should be. And they'll fight for it.
You know, everybody seems to think that this Supreme Court–the one that just passed with the Mife case–it was, you know, it was a win, but it was just a win for a minute, is what it is. This, you know, all of this, they only came about because this is election. Let's be honest, come on. Because there are a lot of people, a lot of Republicans who did not–you know, they're needing those votes.
REID: Yeah. Absolutely.
BREWER: That just bought us a little more time.
REID: Indeed. And the time to act is going to be in November. Shannon Brewer, Mini Timmaraju, thank you both very much, on this very somber anniversary.
(...)
