Abortion has been an increasingly hot topic since the U.S. Supreme Court finally agreed to hear Dobbs v. Jackson. With how oral arguments went in December, both sides believed that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case which legalized abortion on demand in all 50 states, would be overturned. Then, earlier this month, a draft opinion from February got leaked. If the draft stands, Roe will be no more.
There have been some pretty hysterical takes, but perhaps none have been more so than Jennifer Rubin, a columnist from The Washington Post who used to be conservative, and that of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Rubin has now taken to tweeting with a Ukranian flag in her user name and kooky takes such as this, as our friends at Twitchy picked up on.
sounds like involuntary servitude to me.
— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin ???????? (@JRubinBlogger) May 8, 2022
Not only does she go with the "mandatory pregnancy" and "mandatory child birth" line, she takes it a step further by bringing the 13th amendment into this. Plus, she even adds in "No, I am NOT kidding."
As a side note, Roe v. Wade was decided in the 1973 case, a 7-2 vote with all male justices by the way, based on a penumbra or "feeling" of what the 14th amendment said about privacy, and that privacy extends to the so-called right to have an abortion.
Meanwhile, others have argued that the 14th amendment should actually be interpreted to offer constitutional protections to unborn Americans. At this point, it seems that the Court is looking to respect the 10th amendment and let voters decide their abortion laws at the state level, via their elected officials.
Bringing the 13th amendment into the conversation is a whole other ballgame.
Rubin's recent columns are not just full of fear-mongering, they're downright deranged. Think of the worst takes on Twitter, which this piece is about after all, and keep piling them on. Only these takes aren't random tweets from a nobody. These are just some of the headlines and sub headlines from her columns.
- May 3: "The Supreme Court’s religion-driven mission sets off a firestorm," with her sub headline claiming "This is only the first step in the war against women, and against the 21st century."
- May 4: " Let’s throw out the term ‘culture wars.’ This is religious tyranny," with her sub headline ranting that "This isn't 'culture.' It's about lives, rights and human dignity."
- May 5: "The right-wing justices think they are unaccountable. Wrong," as her sub headline threatens "The Supreme Court wants to remake America? The public is ready to remake the court."
- Also on May 5: "Stare decisis is essential to social stability. The court doesn’t care," with her sub headline lamenting how "The Supreme Court is blind to the havoc overturning Roe's precedent will have."
- May 8: "Criminalizing abortion: Cue the enforcement nightmare," as her sub headline asks "Consider what it would take to “prove” a woman had an illegal abortion."
It's worth reminding Rubin, as well as anyone and everyone, that it is not the position of the pro-life movement to criminalize women for their abortions. On Thursday, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) reminded as much with an open letter from 70 fellow pro-life organizations.
More than 70 leading pro-life organizations release open letter to state legislators: criminalizing women who have abortions is not pro-life. https://t.co/swhYzAvsex
— NRLC Communications (@nrlcomm) May 12, 2022
It might sound like an alternative universe to talk about Rubin as a conservative, but once upon a time, she really was. Twitchy also dug up some of those tweets.
The left goes too far on abortion again http://t.co/tXiEuuLDvJ
— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin ???????? (@JRubinBlogger) July 22, 2015
Over 14,000 late term abortions per year, for decades.. And finally Americans are having second thoughts http://t.co/y2cJvEm4uA
— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin ???????? (@JRubinBlogger) July 25, 2013
@RichardGrenell @lis_smith @mittromney is Obama still for abortion in demand up to the moment of birth, at tax payers expense?
— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin ???????? (@JRubinBlogger) October 10, 2012
Her own past tweets show her taking issue with Democrats and the pro-abortion obsession they stick to today, which is not actually popular with most American voters.
Then there's Sen. Gillibrand. While speaking to Jake Tapper on the May 8 edition of CNN's "State of the Union," she claimed that women "are half-citizens under this ruling." Besides how ridiculous it is to suggest that overturning Roe affects a woman's citizenship, such a "ruling" is not even official; it is merely a leaked draft that was written in February.
She also purported to speak for all women, claiming that "if America's people, America's women and men who love them do not fight right now, we will lose the basic right to make decisions, to have bodily autonomy, and to decide what our futures look like. This is a fundamental moment for advocacy and for not giving up."
Gillibrand tweeted the same absurdity from her official account on May 6.
When you take away a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her health and well-being, she is no longer a full citizen of this country. She no longer has freedom, she no longer has bodily autonomy, and she no longer has basic civil rights. Here’s one way we fight back:
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) May 6, 2022
This is who the senator is, including when she ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary. She was particularly relentless about her pro-abortion position then.
When discussing the Hyde Amendment, Gillibrand went on to speak from the debate stage in June 2019.
"And I want to talk directly, directly to America’s women, and to the men who love them. Women’s reproductive rights are under assault by President Trump and the Republican Party. Thirty states are trying to overturn Roe v. Wade right now. And it is mind-boggling that we are debating this, on this stage, in 2019, among Democrats, on whether women should have access to reproductive rights," she said.
As we continue to highlight, though, Rubin and Gillibrand are the ones with the losing positions. Rubin is a columnist known for zany talking points. Gillibrand, coming from a blue state, likely has that Senate seat until she retires. That doesn't mean the Democratic majority is safe, though, and it likely won't be following the upcoming November midterm elections.