Idaho just became the first state to restrict interstate travel for
minors seeking abortion access.
Now, this was something in the works for quite some time now unfortunately,
it has passed.
The Republican authored law, H.B 242,
creates a new crime of abortion trafficking and
establishes a minimum two-year prison sentence-and a maximum
of five years-for anyone found guilty of committing it.
Now, here's what abortion trafficking is defined as in the legislation.
An adult who with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or
guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor, either procures an abortion or
obtains an abortion-inducing drug for the pregnant minor to use for
an abortion by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant
minor within this state commits the crime of abortion trafficking.
So this is interstate travel, it's just a way to essentially scare
anyone who might think about helping a minor who is seeking an abortion.
So let me just say, some of you might think, it's a minor, maybe you
want the parents to know except what if that minor was raped by a family member.
And doesn't want to come out and talk about that yet,
and is it ready for that yet?
I just think when it comes to this particular issue,
it's such a sensitive matter that has a lifelong impact on the girls,
in this case, we're talking about minors.
The girl's life, that,
I can see situations in which the parents can actually make the problem even worse.
But I'm curious, what you think Brian,
because the fact that this affects only minors does make it a little more
complicated in the minds of a lot of people.
>> Taking the age of the woman out of the equation in a pregnancy.
It just feels unenforceable unconstitutional to prohibit
the the travel of someone seeking medical attention or medical care.
I said, a lot of the scariest things that are happening on these issues
are happening at the state level.
It's one of the things that Liz wins did and
the abortion access front has been fighting for for almost a decade now.
They work on this state level and some of the story.
This is a horrific thing that, a mom or a grandmother
who is transporting a family member who is trying to
get an abortion for whatever reason will go to jail for
being a trafficker, an abortion trafficker.
This is so futuristic and bizarre to even think of someone could write
an abortion trafficker that there are people out there like coyotes,
picking up women all over the state of Idaho and grabbing them and
putting them in cars and taking them to see doctors.
This feels like we're going full circle here.
But this does feel like something that will go to the Supreme Court to
Clarence Thomas who's hopefully not on a yacht and
can actually apply some judicial intelligence to this.
But this just feels really, really dystopian and scary to me.
>> I mean, it is.
>> And this is why.
>> Yeah, I mean look.
>> This is the very reason states can't make anti abortion policy on their own and
then they overreach and try to reach across the border.
>> I mean, it's insane, it's absolutely insane.
And you're right, this is dystopian.
This is, I mean, if you want to talk about big government,
it doesn't get much bigger than this.
I mean, this is the most intimate important decision that a female can make.
And the idea that the government would go out of its
way to not only intimidate the girl in this case, but
also anyone who might want to help the girl in her time of need,
it just tells you everything you need to know.
>> No, I was just thinking too about the enforcement of such a thing.
How is it reported?
We're so close to the handmaid's tale here I can't even believe.
Women will be traveling in the trunk of their grandmother's car on their way to
see a doctor.
Because maybe they were raped or
because there's a pregnancy where there's fetal distress or
some other abnormality that needs medical attention or
driving to get an abortion pill as they call it.
I mean this just feels really frightening and such overreach.
>> I mean its really frightening and it is interesting because I've been wondering.
Considering how unpopular this is, I think that the anti abortion wave did in
fact help the progressive Supreme court candidate win in, in Wisconsin.
The midterm elections were fascinating,
especially because abortion did end up being our anti abortion
policies did end up serving as a liability for Republican candidates.
And look, I know I'm on the left and
maybe people won't take my analysis on that as seriously, but
maybe you'll take that analysis seriously when it comes from a right winger.
Because Ann Coulter is like can we maybe stop with the anti abortion legislation?
So she got a little bit of credit for this tweet from Jezebel, but
I give her no credit and I'll explain why after I read it.
So, she had quote tweeted a New York Times piece about the victory for
progressives in Wisconsin.
And she says the demand for
anti abortion legislation just cost Republicans another crucial race.
Hey, pro lifers, we won, abortion is not a constitutional right anymore.
Please stop pushing strict limits on abortion or
there will be no Republicans left.
So the reason why I don't give her any credit is,
Ann I don't think you're stupid, but did you think that that was
the goal to just change the constitutional protections for abortion?
And then everyone would just stop after that?
Like all these red states would just step back and
be like, that's all we wanted to do.
It was really an ideological thing and out of principle, we just felt the,
constitution doesn't provide protections for reproductive rights.
But after that, we don't want big government,
we're gonna let you do what you want to do.
No, that was never the goal, the goal was always to reverse This is so futuristic
and bizarre to allow for all these insane draconian laws to go into effect.
I mean, so many of these red states had trigger laws, so
this very second Roe V Wade gets reversed, those anti abortion laws come into effect.
Why is she surprised by this?
Do you not know your own party?
Like it's insane.
>> I think you just hit the nail on the head, I think that,
she doesn't know her own party.
I don't think any of these,
she seems like a very anachronistic Republican now in this party today.
There's no limit to how far they want to go to, to make a 50 state ban,
these legislatures across the country want to ban abortion and
make no exceptions whatsoever.
And any Republican who thought that it would stop at a constitutional, hey,
it's not written into the constitution that a woman has a right to an abortion.
They have been kidding themselves and now they're saying these things because,
yeah, they are going to continue to lose.
But, it's starting to look like the Republicans need to splinter and
form their own political party, separate from their own party just as
Democrats have always said maybe the Democrats should split up and
form a second party, a third party.
I'm not being very articulate about this saying you have two parties that are big.
>> Yeah. No, I hear you,
I mean, and we've been struggling with the Democratic Party for quite some time now.
But look, I think that this is how capitalism is self destructing and
I think we're seeing a lot of it right now.
The same goes for the culture wars, right?
When you have a party that has put all of its weight behind culture
war issues because their economic policies are incredibly unpopular and
they certainly don't want to run on those policies.
Eventually they're gonna go too far, and
that's where the Republican Party is right now.
And people want to be able to make decisions about their own bodies,
about their own lives,
especially when it comes to something as serious as having Children.
And they don't know how to stop because what else are they gonna do?
I mean, what else is their big issue?
All they do is dive deep in culture wars that are increasingly unpopular,
americans are sick of it.
>> Especially when there are much more serious economic
issues that these lawmakers should be focusing on, right?
And, and by the way, if, if they genuinely care about human lives,
they don't want to do anything about mass shootings.
They don't wanna do anything about school shootings.
They have no problem with the lax gun laws that kill actual living
breathing human beings.
But then they turn around and pretend like, we're saving human lives because
the Zygote is way more important than a human being that's already alive and
outside a womb and is viable outside a womb.