It’s a disgrace of historic proportions that the illegitimate Supreme Court (a stolen seat, Roe-hating judges confirmed under false pretenses) is poised to impose a forced-birth diktat on American women. Worse yet, the court’s mendacious majority apparently thinks we should hew to the values of…prepare to wince…the state of Mississippi. In other words, the bottom of the barrel.
Lest we forget, Roe v. Wade seems fated to be overturned because the high court finds wisdom in the Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and when Roe goes down, Mississippi’s “trigger” mechanism will ban virtually all abortions, targeting even the impregnated victims of incest. And that’s fine with Tate Reeves, the Mississippi governor who surfaced on several Sunday chat shows to laud his state – which ranks first in the nation in childhood poverty, first in infant mortality, first in childbirths among unmarried women, and worst in health care coverage. (Plus, last fall, Mississippi had highest Covid death rate in the nation. But Reeves was basically cool with that too, because, as he said at the time, Mississippi is a God-fearin’ place where Christians are “a little less scared” of Covid because they believe in eternal life.)
It’s pathetic that we as a nation will likely be soon defined by the worst of who we are.
To get a whiff of Reeves’ mentality, here’s a Sunday exchange from CNN’s State of the Union. Host Jake Tapper asked: “Has the state done any analysis of what the state thinks will happen to (affected) women and girls if this (trigger) law goes into effect, how many unwanted pregnancies will result in deliveries, how many will result in women and girls dying because they seek out unsafe methods? Have you done an analysis that way?
Reeves replied:
“Well, that’s a great question, Jake…We have started doing the hard work of what a post-Roe Mississippi will look like…Number one, we have to do everything we can to make it easier on those moms who may be in unwanted pregnancies. And that’s the reason that we this year – just in the last couple of weeks, I have signed legislation to provide help and resources and money to the 37 pregnancy resource centers that are located in every region of our state. We want to make sure that we get those individuals, ladies and women and expectant mothers, the help that they need from a health care standpoint, but it’s not just about the health care. It’s about other resources that are available to those moms…The next phase of the pro-life movement is about, what are we doing to help those babies that maybe are, they do go to full term that the moms do have? And what we’re trying to do is focus on making adoption easier in Mississippi. We’re focusing on improving our foster care system.”
So much to parse! For starters, he never said whether the state has determined how many women and girls would seek illegal/unsafe abortions. But Tapper followed up: “What did the state of Mississippi conclude as to, of the 3500 abortions that happen on average per year in Mississippi, how many of those girls and women will seek unsafe abortions? How many might die? How many might end up hurt, mutilated, whatever?”
Reeves’ reply:
“Well, Jake, I can’t predict for you exactly what’s going to happen in the future.”
Glad we got that settled.
Reeves preferred to focus on the wonderful “resources” that would be showered on women who are forced by the state to give birth – such as “improving our foster care system.” Too bad he didn’t volunteer the fact that Mississippi has been the longstanding target of a federal lawsuit that documents the state’s longstanding failure to protect foster children from abuse. Mississippi has never provided the necessary “resources,” and Reeves as governor has been no different. If he wanted, he could expand Medicaid coverage to help the neediest women who will be forced to give birth, but he won’t do that either, because Medicaid expansion is a feature of Obamacare and Obamacare has Obama’s name in it.
I suppose we could cut Reeves a break and point out that the Mississippi trigger law isn’t 100 percent draconian. A woman who’s raped by a stranger can still get an abortion; a woman whose life is in danger can still get an abortion. But what about, say, a teen girl who’s impregnated by a family member?
Tapper asked about that: “So, assuming that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the state of Mississippi will force girls and women who are the victims of incest to (give birth). Can you explain why that is going to be your law?”
Reeves’ reply:
“That affects less than 1 percent of all abortions in America on an annual basis.”
Translation: Yes.
There you have it, the American Taliban’s definition of family values. If pervy Uncle Ernie does his worst business, the resulting child of incest shall have the Freedom to live – at least until some gun nut shows up at his school. Indeed, the credo in Mississippi, and the other forced-birth states, is that wombs are more regulated than guns.
After Reeves said goodbye to Tapper, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand showed up. She did what Democrats always do when they’re losing – she fumed in high dudgeon. How sad it is that, in a very real sense, a reactionary like Tate Reeves has more clout these days than she does.
She warned: “If America’s people, America’s women and the men who love them, do not fight right now, we will lose the basic right to make decisions, to have bodily autonomy, and to decide what our futures look like…If the American people are paying attention, this issue will also be on the ballot in November.”
Fine. But if the high court drags us down to the level of Mississippi, that balloting will likely be too little, too late.