Morning Joe Panel Denounces Alabama Abortion Law As ‘Barbarism’ And Hypocrisy
In a stunning segment Thursday morning, guests on MSNBC’s Morning Joe took a proverbial hatchet to Alabama’s new anti-abortion law. A number of the show’s regulars denounced the measure, and others like it, suggesting its authors were hypocrites or even monsters.
Host Joe Scarborough began by criticizing President Donald Trump for his hypocritical support for the Pro-Life movement, saying he has no conservative credentials and has changed his position to suit his own purposes. Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude then made a passionate case against the Alabama law and restrictions on a woman’s right to choose.
“All of the millions of women who marched right after his [Trump’s] election, this sort of legislation will motivate them even more in 2020,” Glaude said.
“That’s the first thing. The second thing is that this is about in some significant way an attempt to control women’s sexuality and it’s bound up with this desire to go back to an age, a time in the country when women were in their place and men could control their bodies and control their choices. To go back to a time when hierarchies were clear and people, men, held power and controlled society.”
“At the heart of this is, in some ways, a vision of this country that is dead and we have people […] who are willing to rend the garment of the country in order to go back to this period of time. At the end of the day, Joe, this is an attempt to control women. And we need to understand that for what it is. And I know that not only women but those who stand in solidarity with them, who will resist this. And lastly, let’s think about the instant mortality right in Alabama, the infant mortality rate in Louisiana, the infant mortality rate in Missouri. The babies who are here, who are alive, they don’t want to take care of but yet they want to show concern. It makes no damn sense. Excuse me.”
“And Joe, of course there are principled and smart women who argue in good faith against abortion,” Willie Geist said. “And I have great respect for a lot of them because if you look at that third trimester number […] only 13% of Americans – 13% – support abortion being legal in the third trimester, including 18% of Democrats.”
“So there are people, we can talk about this, it’s not an issue that lends itself to a lot of nuance but what we’re talking about right in front of us, as Eddie says, is barbarism. We’re talking having to deliver the child of your attacker, if you are raped. Having to deliver the child of your uncle, God forbid. Your father, if you are raped by them. Who in good faith can defend that?”
“And when that infant is born, when that infant is born, these same people who insist on these punitive measures, these same people welcome that infant into a world where there is no social safety net,” Mike Barnicle said. “Where we’re going to take away your food stamps, we’re going to take away your health care. We’re going to continue to go to schools that are substandard and good luck with your life.”
“Well, you know, for so many of these people unfortunately, they’re pro rife until the point that the baby is born,” Scarborough said.
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
