Tucker: Democrats have abandoned their 'my body, my choice' argument
'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host weighs in on the left's hypocrisy regarding the government dictation of personal health decisions
Here’s an interesting observation/theory: The slogans they yell the loudest are the ones they believe the least. We’ve noticed that recently. Volume is inversely proportional to sincerity. You scream it because you don’t really believe it. How do we think this? Here’s why.
The very same people who’ve told us for decades that it’s "my body, my choice," and seemed to mean it—those people—immediately abandoned their own argument when Covid arrived. Suddenly they were demanding that we wear the mask and get the shot. These weren’t optional suggestions. They weren’t deeply personal decisions to be made according to the dictates of individual conscience, after consulting with family, physicians, and clergy. Not at all. These were mandates. All of a sudden Democrats were arguing that actually, politicians do get to decide what we do with your bodies—it’s their choice, not yours: "Inject these powerful drugs whether you want to or not because we own you." Whatever else that is, that is not a pro-choice position, to put it mildly. So as we watched this happen we wondered: what are these people going to say the next time so-called abortion rights are challenged in court? Now we know the answer.
Last night the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a new abortion law in Texas. The decision came down 5-4—Roe v Wade was a 7-2 split almost 50 years ago. This time, the court upheld a Texas law that effectively bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Typically that’s at about six weeks into pregnancy. The law doesn't allow the government of Texas to enforce the ban. No one’s going to jail over abortion. Instead, the new law lets citizens sue clinics that commit illegal abortions.
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No matter how you feel about abortion, it’s hard to argue this is an especially radical law. Intentionally stopping a person’s heart from beating is the definition of killing. Government has a right to regulate that. Deciding when it’s OK to kill a person is, on the most basic level, the whole reason we have laws in the first place. So whether it’s right or wrong or whether you like it or not, it’s not a crazy statute. It did however drive the media crazy. Here’s CBS quote, "news" last night:
NORAH ODONNELL: It is nearly impossible to get an abortion in Texas. The most restrictive abortion law in the country went into effect after the US Supreme Court declined to act on a request to block it // CBS REPORTER: Abortion providers say Texas has essentially outlawed 85% of abortion procedures which will force many clinics to close. Amy Hagstrom Miller runs four clinics providing abortion services and is one of the plaintiffs asking the Supreme Court to intervene AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: It’s heartbreaking to deny them to care that our staff are ready to provide. Most people will be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will. CBS REPORTER: The law signed by Gregg Abbott bans abortion after a so-called fetal heartbeat is detected – usually around six weeks.
How is an abortion service different from an abortion—why not just call it what it is? But here is the best line from CBS, "A so-called fetal heartbeat." Imagine saying something like that out loud. Once they’ve decided you should die, they won’t even admit you have a heartbeat. Do the very worst people in America go into journalism, or does it just seem that way? In any case, you’ll notice that CBS make a case for more abortion—no.
They didn’t tell you why it’s so important to stop fetal hearts from beating. They just asserted that it is. They didn’t say a word about how this violates your physical autonomy, how it’s your body, and therefore your choice. They can’t say that now—they’re for mandating vaccines and masks. In that way, they’re a little smarter than the protestors who gathered outside the Texas state capitol today. Many of them are holding signs affirming their physical autonomy. You can’t tell them what to do with their bodies—politicians hands off my body. But wait. At the time same, they're declaring their physical autonomy, they’re wearing their little obedience masks. You can bet all of them are vaccinated. They were told to get the shot, so of course, they obeyed. They don’t see the irony here. On the other hand, how could they?
So few sane people are left with big platforms in this country that you almost never hear a sensible, logical, rational argument about anything. Just hours ago, the A.C.L.U. released this statement. Quote: "Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties." You have more civil liberties when they control your body. You can imagine the 1860s version: "Far from compromising civil liberties, slavery actually enhances personal freedom." It’s not even Orwellian at this point. It’s post-Orwell.
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Things are changing so fast that a lot of people on the left are having trouble keeping up with the shifting justifications for the policies they want. Poor Jen Psaki, never a genius to begin with, unintentionally blew herself up today at the White House press briefing.
Reporter Question: Why does the president support abortion when his own Catholic faith teaches abortion is morally wrong? Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary: Well, he believes that it's a woman's right. It's a woman's body, and it's her choice. Reporter: Who does he believe should look out for the unborn child? Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary: He believes that it's up to a woman to make those decisions and up to a woman to make those decisions with her doctor. I know you've never faced those choices, nor have you ever been pregnant but for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing. The President believes their rights should be respected. Go ahead. I think I got to move on. I think we have to move on. You've had plenty of time today.
Oh, getting a sophomore gender studies lecture from Jen Psaki. Here at Wesleyan men don’t get a chance to talk about abortion—you ever been pregnant before, I don’t think so. You can’t get pregnant. You’re a man. Abortion is a women’s issue. So shut up. They’ve been saying that for so long they forgot to update the talking points. You’d think Jen Psaki, who does this for a living, should know men can get pregnant now. The science people tell us that every day. Men get pregnant. It’s on the cover of magazines. I think it’s on the cover of People magazine right now—a dude who’s pregnant. What does that mean? It means that abortion is now a men’s issue. Men are child bearers. So men—dudes—have an equal right to choose to terminate their pregnancies and they have a right to weigh in on the policy itself. It’s not a women’s issue anymore Jen Psaki. She may get an outraged call from congresswoman Cori Bush of St. Louis who was on this earlier.
BUSH in May: I sit before you today as a single mom, as a nurse, as an activist, and as a Congresswoman, and I am committed to doing the absolute most to protect Black mothers. To protect Black babies. To protect Black birthing people.
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See Cori Bush is on this—maybe she should be White House Press Secretary. She knows that it’s not a woman’s choice. It’s a birthing people's choice. How is it an attack on women to ban abortion in Texas? That’s a tough one—they’re not really sure. On MSNBC They’re not even trying to explain, they just want you to know that if you’re for this law in Texas—you’re the Taliban:
Frank Schaeffer: And we have a situation in Texas right now tonight where the American Taliban, because that’s what it is, there’s not an American evangelical right-wing movement, there is an American Taliban that is weirdly similar in so many ways to the Middle Eastern Islamist terrorists.
You just feel so sorry for these people. America is changing so fast that people over the age of 16 who aren’t on TikTok half the day just can’t keep up. There was a time, like two weeks ago, that the Taliban were bad before they were a critical member of the international community or talking daily to the secretary of state of national security adviser or waiting for their American aid.
The American Taliban—that’s different. Unfortunately, unlike the Pashtun Taliban, no one in Texas is getting tens of billions in free weapons from Joe Biden. National Right to Life isn’t getting Blackhawks or 360,000 AR-15s. So, actually, it’s a little different to be the American Taliban. But is the Taliban still bad? No, they’re good. We need to update our talking points.
This MSNBC anchor—the most firey in their lineup—wants you to know that if you tell people what to do with their bodies, you’re a bad person, unless you’re Tony Fauci, in which case you’re America’s doctor and a hero. The whole thing, she said, reminds her of that book she once read, maybe the only book she’s ever read:
Joy Reid: By next summer, we could be living in our own version of The Handmaid`s Tale, where forced birth is the law in large sections of the country. // You know, and, Senator Warren, you know, people think it`s hyperbolic when I tweet about the Handmaid`s Tale coming to America but I don`t think it seems hyperbolic now. Does it to you? Sen Elizabeth Warren: No.
It’s like the greatest question ever asked, Elizabeth Warren does this seem hyperbolic to you? Is there anything you might say to Elizabeth Warren where she might reply, "That seems a bit hyperbolic to me. You’re going too far. Slow down now. Reign in your rhetoric." When MSNBC trots out Elizabeth Warren it doesn’t matter what she says the point is she’s there—this is a serious moment.
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CNN had to top it, and they did, they went farther than MSNBC. To assess the court’s decision on abortion, CNN found a man with personal experience—Jeffrey Toobin. Toobin, who is most famous for masturbating on Zoom—that will define his obit, unfortunately, there may not be room for a much more relevant fact that Jeffrey Toobin once impregnated a co-workers' daughter, and pressured her to get an abortion. He knows this topic. She refused, but in the process of pushing her to get an abortion unsuccessfully, Jeffery Toobin learned what a lot of crappy men have learned over the years which is this is a great option if you’re a married guy who doesn’t want to pay for more kids with random women. So Jeffrey Toobin means it when he says it’s bad to ban it:
TOOBIN, CNN Kate Bolduan ‘At This Hour’: Today is the first day that a state can legally ban abortion. // TOOBIN, CNN New Day: And Roe v Wade essentially does not exist, at least in the state of Texas and probably in more states to come. // TOOBIN, CNN Anderson Cooper: Texas has ban abortion in this state and the Supreme Court has done nothing about it, that is immensely significant, mostly for the women in Texas, 29 million people in total live in Texas. // TOOBIN, CNN Don Lemon, Tuesday: LEMON: What does that mean for Roe v Wade? I said it could effectively end Roe v Wade, is that an overstatement? TOOBIN: I don’t think so. The point of Roe v Wade is that states cannot ban abortion.
It’s immensely significant for the women he mansplained. They’ve been telling you that for a long time when the truth is every person who lives here knows, abortion is the best deal for men who, say, impregnate the daughters of their co-workers because it allows them to skate without having to deal with the consequences. Abortion makes actual women—who were up until recently having all the babies until dudes could get pregnant—it makes them feel pretty bad about it. If you ask a woman, "How do you feel about the abortion you had," not many feel that great about it. People like Jeffrey Toobin feel fine. So it’s his prerogative he’s defending, but whatever.
There he is lecturing us about "Roe v. Wade," that sacred 7-2 ruling that invented the right to right to abortion, out of nothing. Now we have a duly elected state legislature in 2021 contradicting the seven unelected judges who concocted the right to abortion back in 1973. Jeffrey Toobin is suggesting that is an attack on democracy. When elected people contravene the judgment of unelected people who died decades ago. That’s what they’re telling you. These people can’t even hear themselves.
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But millions of Americans do recognize this moment for what it is. It's proof that democracy does still exist -- voters can decide what they want for their communities, their states, their towns, and courts will potentially respect that right. It’s called self-government.
The legislature in Texas legislature has realized this for months now. They've passed laws banning vaccine passports, homeless encampments, racist struggle sessions in school, protests that block emergency vehicles from riding down the road. Those are laws specific to Texas and what the people of Texas want and a lot of those laws are still on the books. That’s not a bad thing, how is it a bad thing? Why should Texas have to be exactly like California? That problem is if that kind of thinking spreads nationally it gravely disempowers the people at CNN and the so-called civil rights organizations that think they are in control of everything. On the other hand, it might actually save civil rights for the rest of us and that might be a good thing.
This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the September 2, 2021 edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
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