A “Morning Joe” panel on Monday voiced concerns over former President Donald Trump’s newly unveiled abortion policy.
Trump announced on Monday that he thinks states should make their own abortion laws rather than the federal government in a video statement he posted on Truth Social. The MSNBC panel condemned Trump’s message, especially noting the former president did not take issue with Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which the state’s supreme court recently upheld. (RELATED: Florida Supreme Court Orders Abortion Amendment Be Placed On Ballot In November)
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“He is fine with states criminalizing women,” Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said. “He’s fine with states giving bounties to those who might report somebody who terminates a pregnancy. Great. You put that out there, and we Democrats and Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, we’re going to say, we believe that women’s reproductive freedom should be protected in this country. Whatever zip code you live in, whatever state you live in, it shouldn’t be up to a group of mostly male legislators deciding how to criminalize your behavior.”
Trump also championed the availability of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other fertility treatments in his Monday message.
“I’m really surprised. I thought he’d try to weasel out of it a little bit more than he did,” host Joe Scarborough said. “What he just said was he supports, like, Florida’s six-week ban. Six-week ban. Ban before women know whether they’re pregnant or not.”
GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN – APRIL 02: Former President Donald Trump arrives for a rally on April 02, 2024 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Host Mika Brzezinki said Trump’s alleged support of this ban is “insane” and “dangerous” while Scarborough was speaking.
“He’s proud of it. And Democrats should drive that message home because for women, this is a matter of life and death, and the men who love them,” she added after Scarborough finished speaking. “I mean, these laws, depending on how they differ in different states, just muddle the medical journey that is already a nightmare for women when they’re on it, when they have a pregnancy that has complications or they have questions, or they have a situation that is dire.”
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the six-week law in April 2023, which provides limited exceptions for cases where the mother conceived from rape, incest or human trafficking; these cases, abortion is permitted at 15 weeks gestation. The six-week ban also includes an exception if the life of the mother is at risk.
“They’re left with a choice of being sterilized, bleeding out or giving birth to a baby that won’t live more than a matter of minutes, and going through the emotional trauma, let alone being sterilized by that,” Brzezinski said. “You can thank Donald Trump for that. And Democrats need to make sure that they understand that they got to get the message out across the country, especially to Republican women.”
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