It was bad enough that Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) not only outrageously tweeted that interracial marriage will be next on the chopping block if the U.S. Supreme Court does indeed overturn Roe v. Wade, but has continued to double down on it. The congressman, from his official account, even cursed when telling people off who dared to laugh at his buffoonery. Then came another fear-mongering call to hysteria, this time from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).
If the end of abortion rights doesn’t get you angry, just wait until you realize how many other rights are at stake if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) May 6, 2022
Interracial marriage, gay marriage and contraception to name a few.
We can’t go back. pic.twitter.com/xNSXfvRmvH
The senator tweeted a clip of what was her Wednesday night appearance on MSNBC's "The ReidOut," so right away you know it was bound to be insane.
"This isn`t just about access to abortion. I mean, that, in itself, is more than enough to mount the campaign to codify Roe into law," Duckworth, who became emotional during the segment, told host Joy Reid, as she shared her experience with invitro fertilization (IVF) and claimed with certainty but without evidence that it too would be banned.
The fear-mongering only continued from there. "Wait until people find out that some of these enumerated rights that are not deeply embedded with the Constitution, like the right to contraception, the right to not send your kids to public schools, all of these rights could be taken away. If abortion rights does not get you angry, then I sure as heck believe that people are going to be angry when they realize how many things could be taken away, interracial marriage, interracial marriage, gay marriage," Duckworth went on to warn.
The senator did, however, get one thing right, which is that "nowhere in the Constitution is the word privacy written about." Instead of acknowledging that such is a weakness then, of the pro-abortion position that abortion is somehow a constitutional right, she warned that "this decision is going to gut literally decades and 100 years of precedents when it comes to the legal system in this country." The so-called precedent of Roe itself has been around for 49 years.
Duckworth and Reid not only advocated for legislation that they claim will codify Roe--although as Guy laid out earlier on Friday, it will do much worse than that--but warned that Republicans, "if they take over the United States Senate," as Reid put it, "will pass a national ban on abortion."
Sen. Duckworth answered "I do fear that," pointing to how Republicans "have been as good as their word when it comes to the state legislatures."
While it is true that states have been passing pro-life laws at record levels, there is no "national ban on abortion" being considered at the federal level.
Further, as Duckworth herself acknowledged, her state of Illinois is already quite pro-abortion. California and New York are similarly looking to expand abortion as well. Should the Court indeed overturn Roe, these states will not be stopped from passing their own abortion laws to make the procedure even more accessible. The difference is that other states will also have the same freedom to control it, which in the case of many other states, means restricting it.
Reid closed the segment by, again, hysterically but without evidence, claiming Republicans are "coming for birth control pills next, guys. They`re coming for that. Count on it."
This ladies and gents is a slippery slope fallacy argument. In a slippery slope argument, a course of action is rejected with little or no evidence. (In this case no evidence.)
— The Constitutionalist (@DoniTheDon_) May 6, 2022
She insists that this will lead to a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end or ends. https://t.co/8WsHDb2YcH
It must be nice to openly lie and not have fact checkers "correct you." Your entire tweet and statement is completely false.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) May 6, 2022
It's also worth pointing out that the chyron focused on how "Republicans Obsess Over SCOTUS Leak," which has been a consistent narrative of the pro-abortion left, as the White House, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and now figures in the media such as Joy Reid, completely downplay how this is an affront to the Court as a sacred institution.
The Senate Democrats account also tweeted the segment.
Further, neither Reid nor Duckworth seems to care to acknowledge that there are Republicans, whom they so shamelessly denigrate, that are themselves in interracial marriages.
In addition to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Justice Clarence Thomas, who are themselves in interracial marriages, Fox News' Peter Hasson highlighted the outrage of Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Wesley Hunt, a Republican Congressional candidate in Texas.
As Rep. Swalwell continues to double down on claims that Republicans want to ban interracial marriage, he repeatedly cites the words from Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) from earlier this year, who has since clarified his remarks, though the congressman has conveniently left the out.