 The Supreme Court allows Texas six-week abortion ban to take effect. What this means is abortions in Texas are effectively banned. So I want to read a little bit of details here about this story, and then we'll take it to the panel. So this is from Alice Miranda Olstein of Politico, who explains, the Supreme Court early Wednesday let a Texas state law take effect that allows private citizens to sue to uphold a ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, potentially creating a new template for states to impose strict restrictions on the procedure. Now I should note that there are no exceptions for rape and incest. So it goes to show you how extreme this bill is. The court's decision to not act on an emergency petition from Texas abortion clinics comes as the justice is prepared to more broadly reconsider the right to an abortion it established almost 50 years ago. In May, justice has agreed to review Mississippi's ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Those arguments are expected later this year with a ruling in 2022. So this is a de facto overturning of Roe before the Supreme Court has time to hear the Mississippi case, said Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson, and Texas will now go back to being pre-Roe state turning the clock back 50 years. Now one of the most bizarre elements of this law is that it would deputize citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure after six weeks. So this means that if you are an Uber driver doing your job driving someone to a clinic to have an abortion, you could be sued. Now for those of you who don't necessarily know why these bills are so egregious, these are basically these so-called heartbeat bills. After Texas law, this is from Vox by the way, patients would have to know their menstrual cycle well and immediately recognize they are pregnant in order to get an abortion. They also, they will also need to be able to travel to a clinic and get together the money for the procedure within the time allowed. Six weeks gestation is just shortly after most pregnant people missed their first period, meaning many people don't know they are pregnant at this stage. The law contains an exception for medical emergencies but not for a pregnancy resulting in rape or incest. So I mean what I feel like is this is a precursor to what will ultimately be a reversal of the Supreme Court president. Lauren did you want to jump in? I know you have a lot to say about this particular subject. Well as the only person who was born, the only person on this panel who was born when abortion was illegal, I do have a little bit to say about it because I didn't realize until decades later that one of our family trips to Puerto Rico was so my mother could have an abortion. But you know this is what wealthy women did in those days. And what I remember as a time, you know innocently, this was in the early 60s, you know playing in the pool trying to catch lizards. You know my mother was there having an abortion and it was basically because she had two kids and she didn't want any more. And that's what women of privilege were able to do versus women who had no privilege, who were poor, were resorting to these coat hanger abortions, these back alley abortions. And what's interesting to note is in 1967, California became the first state to legalize abortion. And there was a flight from Dallas where it was very impossible. And they actually called it the abortion special. That was what it was referred to. There were so many flights from Dallas to Los Angeles called the abortion special or the non-family plan. And I interviewed a couple of weeks ago, David Talbot, the famous journalist who founded Salon. And he just did a book on a famous 60s activist, one of whom was Heather Booth, who was one of the organizers of the Jane Collective, which was I guess you could say it's the equivalent of today's mutual aid, where these women got together and they actually performed abortions. It wasn't like they were intending to do that. They originally had a doctor, but then they saw this doctor was trying to make a lot of money off of it and they watched how easy it was to do. So they sort of trained themselves and they had this sort of underground railroad, if you will, of people that were performing abortions in Chicago. And I really feel like that's the days that we're going back to. And I just can't believe it's happening. Yeah, Tina, does it feel like people even acknowledge what will happen if this takes effect? I mean, let's say, hypothetically speaking, the Supreme Court does indeed reverse Roe and Casey. I mean, in my opinion, I think that abortions in 12 states would probably be illegal within a month, if not weeks. Do you think that people, like the average Americans who see this story acknowledge that abortions won't actually decrease. They'll just become illegal and unregulated? Like what's your take on what the average person will think about this? I agree with you. They're not going to disappear just because it becomes outlawed. What will happen is they'll become more dangerous for women because they will be done illegally in back rooms or in the case where you're wealthy, you can go somewhere, fly somewhere and get it taken care of. But if you're not of the privileged class, it's going to become very dangerous. And I think your assessment is also right as far as how many states will do it because we have these so-called heartbeat bills that are being put on hold right now only because there's somebody that they can sue. So Planned Parenthood or whoever else can go after the attorney generals for the state to stop these from taking effect. But what the thing is they did with this bill is they've now taken that right away and given it to these citizens so the citizens can sue. And not only are they deputizing the citizens, they're also saying to these other folks, well, you can't sue the attorney general now. We're not the ones that are like doing it. It's these other folks, right? It's these private citizens. So it's very dangerous on many levels. But to answer the broader question of how most Americans will perceive this, I don't think they care. There's this whole, I mean, and maybe Lauren can speak on this too. I feel like that there's just a lot of despondence about it and it's a very scary and dangerous situation that we end. If we lose the right to abortion, it will be a very dark day in America and it will affect a lot of women. Six weeks, most women don't know that they're pregnant six weeks in. And let me also say this, they call it a heartbeat bill, but the fetus doesn't even have a heart yet, right? So it's kind of a misnomer to call it that. But that's what they're calling it because they obviously want to engender this idea that it's an actual baby at six weeks and you'd be killing a baby. So it's all about the way they want to phrase things. But I don't see a lot of people protesting this. I'm a little bit concerned about that. There should be more concern out there in the streets and I'm not seeing it. Well, you know, the last poll that I found in 2018, it was a Gallup poll and it said that 48% were pro-choice, 48% were pro-life, 28% wanted to overturn Roe versus Wade and 64% do not. So I feel it's like with the vaccination thing, people are coming out of the woodwork. And we saw, you know, at the same weekend, we had people protesting the mask mandates here in Buncombe County. In fact, the only time my wonderful rep, Madison Cawthorne has come to Whitmore. I'm so sorry, Lauren. My new rep at Asheville, and the only time he came to- That guy is a lunatic. Yeah, I mean, we could talk about what he said this past weekend, but the only time he came to Asheville was to sit there and at the Buncombe County Board of Education to talk against the mask mandates and basically talk about them like they were the Nuremberg laws. I mean, it's insane. It's insane. I also found out that there was one in Santa Monica and- Yeah, it was. And there were friends of mine who are anti-vaxxers even before COVID were in attendance. So I know you want to get to this story later when you talk about Joe Rogan and Ivermectin, but I mean, it's like you got the fringe elements of the left and right, and maybe that's the case with abortion. I mean, who knows? Yeah, it's like they're politicizing a public health crisis in both circumstances. Absolutely. That's a great observation. In fact, on that note, I wanted Jordan to react to this tweet from a friend of the show, Jen Perlman, who says Texas is taking away a woman's right to choose what to do with her body. All those saying my body, my choice about vaccination don't the same principles apply here. So I mean, I feel like at this moment, Jordan, like the people who deem themselves pro-life after they've been showing up to school boards, harassing members of their children's school or mass mandates, I feel like we're kind of playing their game when we even call them pro-life. Can you just speak about the hypocrisy here, Jordan? Because you've experienced COVID firsthand and you know how serious it is, but yet they have no concern about that. However, when it comes to fetuses who are not alive yet, even before the heartbeat is there, as Tina says, that's where they're concerned about. When the baby is born, however, no welfare, no support whatsoever when it comes to social safety net. So speak about this, Jordan, because I know you have a lot to say when it comes to the hypocrisy here. Indeed. And I apologize. I actually from COVID got a bad case of asthma and as the night goes on, I cough. So I apologize if I'm coughing a little bit, but... Yeah, no problem. Republicans and hypocrisy, no. Who would have thought? It's really something. And you know, I mean, this, honestly I've said this entire time, this COVID thing, it's not really about vaccines per se. I mean, if Trump went out from the beginning hardcore and said, I made the biggest, most beautiful vaccine and you should take it, they'd be taking it, but he didn't. But what's really striking to me, Jen's absolutely right. And it's mostly by the way, men. I mean, I don't want to say there aren't female anti-vaxxers because there are, but I mean, Tina could tell you some, a lot of these anti-vaxxer rallies are a lot of older, sometimes, younger white men with resentment. And they would like to tell women what to do with their bodies. But if anybody even suggests, that even tells you, but suggests you do this, don't tread on me. So I think there is not only hypocrisy, but a sexism to it. And I'll also say, in addition to how dangerous this is for women, the added component besides outlawing abortion, is this law has basically created a bounty hunter system. Yeah, 100%. In Texas, where there's already reports of increases in people waiting outside abortion clinics. It's like the whole like, wanted $10,000 reward sign in the Wild Wild West, maybe it wasn't 10,000. But this basically allows people, if you sue somebody civilly and win, then the other person has to pay you who sued $10,000. So besides pro-life, right-wing extremism, there's money in it. And I don't know, Tina could tell you, I sure can from seeing this exploding white supremacist conspiracy movement over the last few years when you add on a financial reward, wow. Well, I would like to level a little bit of criticism at the women's reproductive rights movement because I don't think they've played it very well. And I've been watching this for a few decades. When Roe was decided, even at the time there was criticism that it was not an absolute right to abortion. They were using the privacy right in the constitution to stretch it a little bit. And so they even said in the decision that it was not an absolute right. And that's how they came up with the trimester system. And then that was overturned in Casey. People were saying, Lawrence Tribe, who I don't agree with on a lot of things, but he was even saying that there should have been a legislative movement for abortion. And what the women's rights groups, women's reproductive rights groups have done is so focused on Roe versus Wade being overturned. Every time there's a Supreme Court Justice nominee, it's all been focused on that. Meanwhile, they have ignored what's happening in the States because these laws since Reagan have been whittled away in the States, whether it's parental control, spouse, I mean, parental consent, even if your father was your rapist, spousal consent, you have to look at ultrasound pictures of a fetus. I mean, you have to watch a lecture. I mean, this is ridiculous, all these little laws. And these women's rights groups, like so many groups on the left, I will say focus almost on federal politics to the exclusion of state politics. And the right doesn't make that mistake. They start with the school board. They start with the city council and then they'll get up to the state legislatures. And that's how come all of these formerly democratic states now have become Republican and even North Carolina. We have a Democratic governor, fortunately, who has to veto three quarters of the crap that the Republican legislature does. But you look at Alec, the American Legislative Exchange Council, they're the ones putting in all these laws. The Stanger Ground Law, the Papers-Greeze Law, the Emergency Manager Law that Jordan knows very well to take away local control, but only in poor communities like Detroit and Flint and Benton Harbor. So I feel like everybody comes out when there's a Kavanaugh or an Amy Comey Barrett, but by that point, it's too late. I agree. I think that's fair criticism. Yeah, actually, I'm glad that you brought that up because we do tend to miss the force for the trees sometimes. And I think that this should really help to recenter us. I wanted to ask Josie, because you have an activist background. This really feels like the warning sign, like the sirens are going off right now. We're about to see Roe v. Wade be overturned. Like this is a huge moment. What do we do? I feel like this is a hair on fire moment, kind of as Tina alluded to, but people seem somewhat ambivalent. What do we do in your opinion? Like what would make the most impact? Because I kind of see this news, and my instinct is to feel hopeless, to kind of shut down. What's your advice to people watching who are feeling that same way? That we need to get involved. Again, here we are. And it's like a moral fight, right? Where it's like, okay, it's abortion here. It's trans rights here. It's a quality over here. It's conversion therapies over here. And all of this moral type of like rhetoric of like trying to control people's lives. It's demoralizing. It's like, what do we fight for the trans, the trans sports in school in the state of Texas? Or do now we have to divert everything to through abortion rights? It's like it's a continual seesaw back and forth. And it's extremely aggravating, especially as activist, because we have for years, and I know because everybody on this call has been a part of the Bernie Sanders movement back in 2015. And when we built and designed this organization and pushed to bring the progressive movement forward, that spirit and energy started to fizzle out because we kept losing and we kept losing and we've kept losing. And now it's weathered us down to the point of like, oh my God, now we can't just fight for progress. We have to fight for abortion rights now. We have to fight for just basic human dignity for people. And so when you say, what is the answer? The answer is to not give up. To stand in solidarity and continue to be active and be a part of your local communities. Because sometimes it's not important to just look at the Senate and look at just one of one seat in the Senate and get mad at that. It's about getting mad at your local level, the person, the representative in your state that voted for this. That's where the anger needs to be generated because that's what scares politicians when you get them at the local level. So for me as activist, don't go for the top. Go for a place that where you live and fix your backyard because your backyard is dirty in the entire country too. And we need to make sure that we fight those fights at a smaller scale because those scales we can actually win.