Geraldo Rivera and Greg Gutfeld got into a heated exchange over abortion during Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News’ juggernaut panel show “The Five.”
The panel discussed the fallout still raining down over the leaked early opinion draft that indicated the Supreme Court might be poised to overturn landmark abortion cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, returning control over abortion access and restrictions to the states.
Rivera weighed in on that, pointing out the fact that his home state of Ohio was likely to impose stricter regulations limiting abortions.
“What am I going to tell my daughters now? That they don’t have control over their body? That they can’t make those choices for themselves?” he asked.
The show then cut to a series of clips of media personalities responding to the early draft, arguing that overturning Roe could result in everything from bans on same sex and interracial marriage to segregating LGBTQ children in schools.
“This is why pro-lifers win, because they can state their case so plainly,” Gutfeld responded when the clips ended. “You ask somebody why they are pro-life, they will say because abortion takes a life and we believe life is sacred. You could disagree with that, but you can’t disagree with the simplicity of it, right? But the problem with the pro-choicers is they do not have the balls to state their case plainly. Like I prefer freedom over fetuses. Don’t sit here and come up with all these other things like it’s going to be interracial marriage next.”
“‘My body, my choice,’ how much simpler could you get?” Rivera objected.
“Let me finish, you already did your ad hominem,” Gutfeld waved Rivera back. “You insulted a few people there.”
“We talked about this, people are more concerned about what they lose than what they will gain,” Gutfeld continued, arguing that the pro-abortion rights argument was all about losing freedom and losing opportunities, and no one ever stopped to consider the gain that came with bringing a new life into the world.
“The issue here is that people need to imagine, right? They can’t step back and see how pro-choice arguments are driven by refusal to imagine what that baby could be,” he added. “But then when that baby bees, then suddenly it changes, right? And they have to create reasons, they have to create all of these reasons to be pro-choice. Rather than just be honest and say, ‘Yeah, it kills an unborn kid, but I prefer my freedom.’ That’s all you gotta say. You’ll get so much more respect.”
“The other thing that drives me crazy, now that I’m on my soapbox, is it used to be even the pro-choicers would admit that abortion was an ugly thing,” Gutfeld continued. “But they felt it had to be a necessary evil, something that would be safe and rare. That was the argument you always heard. But now when you go anywhere on social media, it’s something to celebrate, to cherish, right?”
WOW! Greg Guttfeld and GERALDO really “went at it” on that TV show. Although I agree with Greg, I actually Like Geraldo and GREG. So I hope these two talented “BROS” can HUG IT OUT after the show. pic.twitter.com/R1Pc4knTVj
— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) May 4, 2022
“To shout!” co-host Dana Perino interrupted.
“That’s baloney. Cherish the wire hanger stuck up their privates, trying to get a — what?” Rivera interjected.
“Come on,” Perino pushed back.
“What, come on, that’s the world before Roe,” Rivera insisted.
“This is exactly what I expected. Bring out the old coat hanger —” Gutfeld replied.
“You are … arrogant …” Rivera turned on Gutfeld.
“Go for it, Geraldo, come on, keep going,” Gutfeld waved.
“You know something? You insulting punk?” Rivera shot back.
“Am I your new Bongino?” Gutfeld asked, referring to fellow Fox News host Dan Bongino, who often got into heated debates with Rivera.
Perino interrupted again, bringing the argument to an abrupt halt.