Reid Falsely Claims Women Will Be Jailed For Miscarriages; Stillbirths

As if mourning that abortion is no longer the law of the land wasn’t grisly enough, many in the media have spread outlandish and false claims that women will now be jailed for suffering miscarriages and stillbirths. MSNBC’s Joy Reid proudly took up the standard on Wednesday night’s episode of The ReidOut, where she used a trio of exceptional cases to fearmonger about the Handmaid’s Tale-esque rule under which American women are supposedly about to live.

Reid began by citing a piece from BuzzFeed News, “Back in April, even before the toppling of Roe, a Texas woman had been charged with murder for allegedly inducing her abortion. Prosecutors later acknowledged that there was no legal basis for the charges, but the case is a cautionary tale.” 

This was followed by a segment from The New Yorker, “Five years ago, a black mother of three from Mississippi experienced a stillbirth at roughly 36 weeks. She was jailed after police found that she had searched for abortion information on her phone. The Washington Post reports that her search history helped prosecutors charge her with, quote, “killing her infant child.””

Reid’s third and final example came from abroad, “In El Salvador, women have been incarcerated for decades for not producing a live birth. Like Teodora del Carmen Vasquez, who ended up spending more than ten years in prison for what she always insisted was a stillbirth.”

It’s good to know that Reid thinks the U.S. judicial system is on par with El Salvador’s in terms of protecting the rights of the defendant and ensuring a fair trial is conducted. 

Reid then shifted gears to focus on how all of these unfortunate outliers will become common practice, “Americans must also confront such widespread human rights violations as a radical right devours bodily autonomy in this country, where the prosecution of women suspected of purposefully or accidentally ending a pregnancy could become standard practice.”

No state is criminalizing miscarriages or stillbirth and Reid’s false equivalence between miscarriage and procured abortion is irresponsible at best and dangerous at worst.

After mourning the closing of the last abortion mill in Mississippi, Reid turned the fearmongering up to 11, “But what’s even worse than a woman prosecuted for a miscarriage or stillbirth? Death. In states with strict abortion laws, doctors may hesitate before offering essential lifesaving measures when a woman is bleeding out during a miscarriage. Because remember, the doctors face fears of prosecution, too.”

If there are doctors who truly are hesitating in these situations, then they need to be educated about what does and does not truly constitute an induced abortion.

Reid’s argument intentionally mischaracterizes the pro-life position. Nobody in the pro-life movement nor anyone involved in passing anti-abortion laws is looking to take away women’s rights, they are simply asserting that the child in the womb is a separate body from the mother and is thus entitled to the right to life. 

Spectacularly, Reid’s argument also mischaracterizes the pro-abortion position, which has morphed in recent years from “safe, legal, and rare” to “on-demand and without apology.”

Using a very small number of legal mishaps (which didn’t get far in the American legal system) to defend a practice that could rightfully be understood as child murder is disingenuous, dishonest, disgusting, and absolutely par for the course for MSNBC.

This brazen bit of disinformation was made possible by ServPro and Nutrisystem. Their contact information is linked.

Click “Expand” to see the relevant transcript.

MSNBC’s The ReidOut
07/06/22
7:46:17 PM ET

JOY REID: Back in April, even before the toppling of Roe, a Texas woman had been charged with murder for allegedly inducing her abortion. Prosecutors later acknowledged that there was no legal basis for the charges, but the case is a cautionary tale. 

Five years ago, a black mother of three from Mississippi experienced a stillbirth at roughly 36 weeks. She was jailed after police found that she had searched for abortion information on her phone. The Washington Post reports that her search history helped prosecutors charge her with, quote, “killing her infant child.” 

In El Salvador, women have been incarcerated for decades for not producing a live birth. Like Teodora del Carmen Vasquez, who ended up spending more than ten years in prison for what she always insisted was a stillbirth. 

Americans must also confront such widespread human rights violations as a radical right devours bodily autonomy in this country, where the prosecution of women suspected of purposefully or accidentally ending a pregnancy could become standard practice. A question we must seriously mull over these days is how long before an American woman is prosecuted for an abortion? And no, this isn’t a dystopian storyline anymore, but we wish that it were. 

Today is a dark day in the fight, as the last abortion clinic in Mississippi has closed. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization — nicknamed the pink house for its bubble gum-covered — covered — colored exterior — where protesters clashed in front of these essential, very valuable medical facility, which now serves as a symbol of what the women in Mississippi have lost, the last clinic shuttered, done. 

Instituting a near-total abortion ban in a state where a Republican governor does not support or even believe in exceptions for rape. 

[Cuts to clip]

TATE REEVES [On Fox News Sunday, 7/3/22]: I don’t believe an exception for rape will actually — uh, make it through the Mississippi legislature and make it to my desk. Uh — again, there’s a lot of effort, — uh, particularly in — in Washington and other places, mainly by the — the Democrats — uh, to try to talk only about the real — um, small, minor number of exceptions that may exist. 

[End of clip]

REID: Wow. But what’s even worse than a woman prosecuted for a miscarriage or stillbirth? Death. 

In states with strict abortion laws, doctors may hesitate before offering essential lifesaving measures when a woman is bleeding out during a miscarriage. Because remember, the doctors face fears of prosecution, too. That’s why activists are setting off alarm bells over the lack of urgency on the national level. So what can be done about it, and why it’s the governors who are on the front line. Stay with us.

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