On Monday, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) said Republicans and the pro-life movement “will not be happy until a rape victim is put in prison for taking the morning-after pill.” Her comments came in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case of a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks. The case could pave the way for the conservative-leaning court to limit abortion rights that were solidified in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
“Yeah, this may end up being the situation that is often described as the dog catching the bus. And what happens in America in terms of the political climate if, in fact, this court overturns decades of precedent and fails to protect women’s reproductive freedoms via this Mississippi case. And, I got to tell you, Nicole, I don’t think younger voters remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade. I don’t think they realize these folks will not be happy until a rape victim is put in prison for taking the morning-after pill,” McCaskill said, referring to Republicans and pro-life advocates. “That’s the road they are going down. That’s the road they’ve been trying to go down for a long time even though they are really pushing provisions that are widely rejected by the vast majority of Americans.”
According to McCaskill, red states with Republican-controlled legislators “will immediately begin shutting down the ability of women to have the ability to choose to terminate a pregnancy with all kinds of limitations. And, eventually, they’re going to keep pushing these cases up until there are none left except the few states that might make it legal. And that’s the way it was before Roe v. Wade was passed before the court, what, 40, 50 years ago.”
Host Nicole Wallace asked the former senator to expand on what life was like before the landmark Supreme Court case was solidified.
“You know, for young women who went to Planned Parenthood in college and got birth control, for young women who have never known the fear of an unwanted pregnancy, have never know what that represents in their lives if there is not a safe and legal place to terminate a pregnancy, this will all be a wakeup call,” McCaskill explained. “This will be a shock to their systems.”
The former senator said if the Supreme Court decides to uphold Mississippi’s abortion ban, “young women will be a driving force in the midterm elections,” particularly if pro-abortion groups “are doing their job.”
As The Daily Wire reported, “Mississippi’s [abortion ban] is a largely straightforward ban, giving the Court the opportunity to look at how Roe v. Wade, which legalizes abortion prior to fetal viability — a standard which now hovers somewhere between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.”
“The appellants presented three questions: whether ‘all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional,’ which standard these types of laws should be judged under by the courts, and whether abortion providers have the standing to challenge a law restricting access to abortion after a certain period of time if they, themselves, are not the target of the abortion restriction,” per a prior report from The Daily Wire.
According to The New York Times, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case in the next term, which begins in October.