I'd also like to talk a little bit about this misnomer of a heartbeat,
the heartbeat bill, what I have in my hand here is a tic-tac.
At 6-weeks a human fetus is about half the size of this tic-tac 4 millimeters high.
>> That's Doctor Nancy Statt testifying before a Florida State Senate committee
considering a 6-week abortion ban also known as a heartbeat bill, but
does a fetus really have a heartbeat at 6-weeks?
>> Four millimeters, it does not have a face, so there's no looking at a face in
an ultrasound and in fact, the ultrasonographer is correct.
It is so small in certain individuals and
based on where it's attached in the uterus, you can't see it.
You have to come back and there is no heart, there is no lungs,
there is no brain, it doesn't have toes, it looks more like a tadpole.
What you detect with the ultrasound machine is the electrical activity of
the cells that will become the sinoatrial node that's pumping each of our hearts
right now hopefully unless you all have a pacemaker.
>> It's nice to see somebody actually stating facts to these Republican
lawmakers who seem to do nothing, but lie.
But unfortunately, the doctor's statements don't matter much to Florida's
culture warriors cuz the near total abortion ban bill passed its committee and
is expected to pass the State Senate any day now.
Now, Jezebel reported that in addition to banning the procedure for most people,
the bill requires rape and incest victims to bring in documentation certifying that
they've sufficiently reported the crime perpetuated against them.
The reporting is deemed adequate, they may be allowed an abortion up to 15 weeks.
Now, I wanna take a second to say most people who are raped or
are the victims of incest do not report it to the police.
So supposed carve out these exceptions for
those cases isn't actually going to serve that purpose.
These people for a myriad of reasons, this bill isn't gonna change those
reasons that people do not report rape or incest to the police.
So most of those survivors will still not be able to get an abortion under this law.
Now, that being said it's also unclear where these abortions will be
performed because we've seen in states with similar bans,
the clinics dwindle and most hospitals don't provide abortions.
Now, Florida, Republicans also, of course,
because it's Florida snuck in another horrible provision into the bill.
They gave $25 million to crisis pregnancy centers.
A post reported the Republicans argue that the 25 million will be used for
services to support pregnant women and their children.
But anti-abortion pregnancy centers sometimes referred to as crisis pregnancy
centers are known for
peddling misinformation based on religious rhetoric that is not medically accurate.
Just as an example,
a lot of these clinics provide false information on the risks of abortion.
They drastically increase the chances of death by abortion.
I mean, they inflate the number to an insane level.
They also provide false information on fetal development.
So essentially, it's like you have a 45-year-old man within your womb on day
one of being pregnant.
I mean you have to see the things that they're handing out to understand
just how insanely ridiculous and
the level of medical misinformation that these centers are providing people.
And Florida just decided to give these centers $25 million of taxpayer money.
Now, the Republicans also rejected an amendment to the provision
that would have called for all the organizations that receive
the funding to use only licensed ultrasound technicians.
So they don't even want the properly licensed people receiving this money.
Any schmuck on the street who wants to open a crisis
pregnancy center can receive this money with no training.
It's insane, but what's even worse than all of that is that
Florida with it currently with its 15 week abortion ban was one
of the most liberal states in that region.
So as a result of this women from neighboring states would travel
to Florida for their reproductive care.
But, Jezebel reported that the states above Florida, Louisiana,
Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina have
either outright bans or only allowed to provide care up to 6-weeks.
To find the next potential clinic you'd have to travel to North Carolina,
or Ohio, or Kansas, depending on what path you take out of Florida and
states are already working on banning interstate travel for abortion.
So even people who were able to travel might not be able to travel anymore.
And one example of a state doing that is Idaho and
they're poised to be the first to do this.
They have a bill that would create an entire new genre of crime dubbed abortion
trafficking which aims to limit minors ability to travel for
abortion care without parental consent.
So it would punish any adult who drives a minor across state lines for an abortion.
The crime is driving with them in the car in Idaho.
Now, HuffPost also reported on this and
said Idaho already has some of the most extreme abortion restrictions on the books
with nearly all abortions banned in the state.
And an affirmative defense law that essentially asserts any doctor who
provides an abortion is guilty until proven innocent.
Now, another side effect of these abortion bans is
that the states passing them are losing doctors.
>> We are gonna lose doctors, people,
they are already not going match day was a week ago.
Do you know what that is when people decide where they're gonna
practice medicine?
And guess where obstetrician gynecologists are not going,
states that have these kinds of bans.
So your children and your grandchildren are going to suffer from this bill because
there won't be enough obstetrician gynecologist to give them care.
>> Let me again on a bunch of this stuff, so number one,
the country is overwhelmingly pro-choice.
Recent pew survey says that only 37% of Americans say
that they want abortion illegal in all or almost all cases.
They're not even in all cases.
Okay and 61% say they want it to be legal in almost all cases.
So, but when you get into the category of, hey, it should be legal, but
within a certain number of weeks, that's an enormous number.
So that's where the great majority of the country is, a certain number of weeks
where it should be legal and at some point it should be illegal.
The people who agree with that, by the way, are people on the left and Democrats,
Roe V Wade said that abortion should be illegal basically in the third trimester.
So basically the outer edge, so when Republicans lie to you and
say, they want abortions up until the moment of birth or
after birth, abortions, there's no such thing and they're lying.
No, t the outer edge is about in the ballpark of 24 weeks, okay.
Okay, so, now the Republicans are saying, hey, let's make it 6-weeks, but
it's 6-weeks as the doctor just explained to you.
You don't even know you're pregnant from a lot of these pregnancies,
you first find out somewhere between 4 to 6 weeks.
So, putting it at 6- weeks means you're banning all abortions.
It's just a trick to say that it's 6-weeks, right?
So, look, again,
most Americans would want it to be around 24 according to the polling.
But it's only state legislators that are passing these laws
when you go to even the most red states, Kansas, Montana, etc.
And you put it to the people, the theoretically conservative people of
Montana, Kentucky, Kansas all said no, no, no we're pro choice.
We want the ability to choose.
So they don't, these guys actually only represent their own base.
So the most extreme of the most extreme.
So that's why, guys, they don't even care about medical information or facts.
Like at 6-weeks, as she explained, it's half a tic-tac, half a tic-tac.
So, and there is no heart, they call it a heartbeat bill,
there's no heart and 6 weeks, there's no heart at all.
Okay, so it's sad for our country that we've gotten to a point and
I know this is true in a lot of issues, but
it's very true in this one where one side just says, I don't care what's true.
I'm just gonna call it a heart,
I'm gonna pretend that they have some sort of choice at 6-weeks.
And then I'm gonna set up these pregnancy centers that I know for
a fact are lying through their teeth to people when they're most vulnerable.
Most looking for real medical advice and
we're going to fund that deception and they do it on purpose.
So it sucks that there's a debate between truth and
lies when there should be a debate between two sides that
disagree on issues and opinions, and policies.
But agree that there are facts in the world, but
that's not the debate we're having in Florida for sure, Brett?
>> Who wants this bill?
And the answer is very few people and those people are folks that just
wanna sit there and do nothing and feel like they have saved the world.
And the way and the Republican apparatus knows that and that's why they call
it the heartbeat bill because no one wants to stop a heartbeat, right?
And it's tough because I just got done hearing all of these Republicans tell me
that that Fauci's an idiot and they're gonna trust the science on this.
And when a scientist gets up there, when an actual doctor gets up there and
tells you that everything they've told you is wrong.
I thought they would run and say, my God, thank you so much for that information,
I'm gonna change my ways.
I'm on the other side of this now that you've explained to me.
Obviously, that's not it because so
much of the anti-abortion debate is this sense of moral superiority.
And it has been completely used in a way that is counter to popular opinion.
I wish they could just make these folks feel good about themselves by
passing a law that bans abortion among Christian fundamentalists.
I think that's a great law and I think everybody would support that law.
And the fact is even if you had that law, they would still violate it the same way
these Christian fundamentalists say that they're trying to protect young boys and
girls from being groomed by anyone.
And then the priest touches them behind the altar,
they're gonna violate it anyway and then they get that drama.
They get that sense of moral superiority over each other,
I think it's a giant win win.
And that's why I think in these wildly gerrymandered districts,
in these wildly gerrymandered states where one party who doesn't get that much of
a majority ends up with a super majority in the house.
I think this is great because then they'll start passing bills that
really benefit the people who want them and nobody else does.
>> Yeah, last point here guys, Idaho is saying,
now we also don't care what the constitution says.
We know that we can't make a bill making it illegal to transport a woman to get
an abortion across state lines cuz it's a federal issue, not a state issue.
So they're going very likely to pass a bill that says if
you drive a minor to a state line.
And you're not the parents, well, we're gonna prosecute you and
you might get two to five years in prison.
So now if you, you have to leave Idaho before you get pregnant,
if you're underage, I mean, look, I don't want anybody under 18 and pregnant period.
And I don't want any of these families having to make these incredibly
hard decisions.
But you're an aunt, an uncle, a grandmother, someone who cares about this
kid and you don't know, a lot of families have abusive relationships.
Maybe they don't wanna tell their dad for a very, very good reason, who knows?
There's 1000 reasons.
But if you try to help that young girl in a time when she most needs it,
they're gonna put you in prison.
So these red states are turning into these Taliban like rule where now
it's almost an open air prison and you're not even allowed to leave the state.
And if you do to get a procedure, the people helping you might be put away.
I mean, you don't talk about political prisoners, they talk about January 60
guys, trespassed, broken the laws, talked about hanging people, etc.
I mean, arresting people for going to another state to get help.
That's a political prisoner and no one voted for it.
Look, put it up as a ballot measure in Idaho,
you're still gonna lose pro-choice wins in almost every state.
Yet these extremists are taking away women's freedoms at every turn.
And it's so obvious that it's part of their political agenda that has nothing to
do with the actual abortion issue, but has to do with controlling women and
their lives.