The abortion is not illegal.
It's not gonna be illegal in your state of Michigan, I'd bet my last dollar,
that's not gonna be the case.
Am I wrong?
>> Well, no, it is illegal in the State right now, in 1931,
Michigan passed one of the first anti-abortion laws.
It says that there's no abortion- >> So they have a trigger provision, but
wouldn't you expect with Governor Whitmer and
the Legislature as it's currently configured?
What do you expect that the likelihood
of them changing that is gonna be pretty swift?
>> What you just heard was yet another example of a right winger who has
supported the anti choice movement, who has supported a political system
that has installed right wing religious zealots in our Supreme Court saying,
Hey, don't worry about it, ladies don't worry about it.
Ladies and gentlemen, abortion isn't illegal in every state.
And what I love is that he's speaking to a state lawmaker from Michigan where
they had a trigger law in place, meaning the second row was reversed,
abortion is banned in the state of Michigan.
Now, for the time being, there is some chance that the state
legislature will reverse it and will provide abortion access and
reproductive rights to women for now, for now.
But I wanted to bring this story and this conversation up because one of
the worst mistakes the left can do along with those who might not identify as
part of the left, but do want to restore reproductive rights.
Do wanna protect reproductive rights is to get complacent and
to trust, to trust that the right wing in America that these
religious zealots in America are satisfied now.
That they're done, they're unrolling their sleeves, they're sitting
back there watching the housewives of New Jersey they are chilling.
They're not chilling.
They want a federal ban on abortion.
Let's be 100% clear about that because we're already at a disadvantage.
What we're seeing in the country right now is the culmination of decades and
decades of the right wing strategizing, organizing,
doing anything and everything necessary to get us to the point
where many red states have already completely banned abortion and
more states are poised to do so as well.
They're already moving on to their next goal.
What's their next goal?
They want a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion federally.
That's what they're working on.
So while Sean Hannity is telling you to chill out,
I would advise you to do the exact opposite.
So let's talk about what they're up to and the dark money that's being
funneled to these right wing organizations who are now organizing and
lobbying for federal ban and also for the time being,
focusing on states that have legalized abortion to get it banned there as well.
Now, who's behind it?
Well, far right lawyer and Federalist Society Fundraiser Leonard Leo
handpicked Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch for
Trump's list of nominees to the Supreme Court based on their alignment with
his terrible, terrible agenda which included reversing Roe.
He was also instrumental to the appointment of Alito and John Roberts, and
worked on the confirmation of Clarence Thomas.
So the federalist society hand picks right wing zealots to install
in the Supreme Court Trump took that list of zealots and
was like looks good to me and he succeeded in confirming three of them.
Okay, that's part of the reason why we're experiencing
this disgusting draconian reversal of Roe as we speak.
Now, what is he up to?
Leo now helms a web of dark money groups that have raised over
$580 million in recent years and has been trying to roll back
decades of precedent on reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights,
environmental protections, the separation of church and state, and more.
And he is working closely with a specific group that has a very specific goal.
Students For Life, has Leo as co-chair of its board and
has led the charge in promoting extreme anti-abortion bills in state legislatures.
Let's just pause for a second come back to me.
So if you're living in a Blue State and
you think I'm safe, I live in California Blue State.
It's a Blue State, look, it doesn't take much to corrupt a politician and
politicians from what we have experienced in recent decades
are certainly not principled people.
So if there's a ton of money flowing into their campaign coffers from people who
want to roll back our reproductive rights,
is there some possibility they'll be persuaded by that funding?
Remember the Democratic Party used to be the party that represented ordinary
Americans, ordinary workers.
It was the party of FDR the party of the new deal.
And now as you guys can probably tell in terms of economic policy, it's really
difficult to draw a distinction between the right and the left in Congress.
So I give you that as a red flag warning sign for
anyone who's living in a Blue State who thinks like, no,
we keep electing democratic lawmakers in our state, we're safe.
No one's safe.
[LAUGH] No one's safe.
So there's that, on a state level they have a plan.
Let's continue reading that graphic though.
Students for Life has taken credit for authoring and
introducing 27 bills in 19 states in the last two legislative sessions,
including its signature Life at Conception bill already passed in Oklahoma and
Arkansas which bans abortions even in cases of rape or incest.
And that's the other thing.
This is an extremist group.
These are extremist theocrats.
Okay, let's not make any mistake about it.
And what they wanna do is force pregnancies,
force childbirth regardless of the circumstances.
Now, it's also worth mentioning that the zealots are not in
any way interested in bolstering social spending programs to ensure
that children living in poverty don't die as a result of starvation or
not having a roof over their head, they're not interested in that.
No, they're interested in controlling your life.
Okay, the party that purports to be in favor of freedom and
liberty wants to get involved in your bedroom.
They want to get involved in what you can do with your body.
That's who these people are.
Students For Life.
So let's continue.
The legislative push is part of the Post-Roe Blueprint crafted by Students For
Life, the organization's, I'm sorry, Students For
Life Action, which is the organization's 501(c)(4) arm.
The blueprint is a six-step plan meant to ensure Roe's reversal
leads to a blanket ban on abortion without exceptions for rape or
incest in all corners of the country.
Students For Life leader kristan Hawkins announced at the 2022
National Pro-Life Summit that the group's ultimate goal is
a constitutional amendment barring abortion throughout America.
I'm sorry to do this to my team.
I just want to cue up that video featuring Sean Hannity again,
because you're gonna hear this argument from the right wing over and
over again because guess what, banning abortion super unpopular.
Republicans right now are concerned that what they have done to women in this
country and stripping them of their reproductive rights,
stripping them of their agency autonomy over their own bodies.
They're worried it might hurt them in the upcoming midterms, they're concerned.
So they have all these goons downplay the damage that has been done.
The damage that we are likely to experience if we get complacent and
think we're safe because we live in Blue States.
Here again is an example of the lies you will be told over and
over again by the right wing and every time you hear it, you must reject it and
be clear about what the right wing is up to.
Let's watch one more time.
>> The abortion is not illegal.
It's not gonna be illegal in your state of Michigan,
I'd bet my last dollar that's not gonna be the case.
Am I wrong?
>> Well, no, it is illegal in the State right now, in 1931,
Michigan passed one of the first anti-abortion laws.
It says that there's no abortion- >> So they have a trigger provision,
but wouldn't you expect with Governor Whitmer and
the Legislature as it's currently configured?
What do you expect that the likelihood of them
changing that is gonna be pretty swift?
>> Here's what I would expect.
I would expect the right wing to do what it always does,
lie to the American people claim to be the party that believes in liberty and
freedom, while they simultaneously strip us of our rights and
enjoy themselves while they do it.
That is what the right wing is about.
They'll tell us that they care about lives while they cry like little children over
wearing a mask, during a global pandemic, dealing with a highly contagious and
lethal virus, that is the right wing.
They are liars.
They don't believe in freedom.
They don't respect our constitution and what they want more than anything
is to rule over us, control us and have a say in every part of our lives again,
including what we do in our own bedrooms.
Clarence Thomas sitting there worried about butt love in his
Supreme Court decision.
Why are you thinking about butt love you little creep, Jesus Christ man.
We knew you were creep during that investigation into your sexual harassment.
But imagine writing a concurring decision in reversing
Roe to warn people that you're gonna try to ban butt love.