Sen. Mike Lee Just Lying To Your Face About IVF And Abortion Travel Restrictions
How meta.
If there is one thing that the Right loves, it is being mad about things they made up themselves. In fact, it is usually something of a challenge to find things they are mad about that …
A) … are actually happening in real life, or
B) … anyone is even trying to do, legislate or advocate for
But people always assume that everyone else basically operates the same way they do, don’t they? Liars think everyone lies, cheaters think everyone cheats, and politicians who make ridiculous shit up to scare their constituents into voting for them assume that everyone else is doing the same thing.
Such is the case with US Senator Mike Lee of Utah.
This week, Sen. Lee has been on something of a rampage, accusing Democrats and the Left at large of lying about IVF (in vitro fertilization) being at risk and restrictions on those who live in states that ban abortion traveling to other states to get an abortion just to scare people.
Don’t I wish!
On Wednesday, he tweeted:
Why did Dems hold a hearing today for the purpose of scaring women into thinking they’ll face criminal penalties if they travel from one state to another to obtain an abortion? It seems especially strange given that not one state imposes such penalties. Not. Even. One.
Isn’t that just the slimiest thing? Lee thinks that by being overly specific he can make it look like abortion rights advocates are lying. It’s true that (for now, at least) states do not impose criminal penalties on those who travel to get abortion. In fact, most states don’t prosecute the abortion-havers for anything, period, because much of the anti-abortion rights crowd is afraid that’s a bad look (though that’s likely only going to last for so long). Rather, they prosecute the doctors and the abortion-aid-and-abetters.
In the case of Texas, it’s legal to travel outside the state to get an abortion, but you have to do it alone. If someone drives you, your local Gladys Kravitz will be able to sue them for thousands of dollars. If someone gives you money to help you get there or pay for your hotel? Same deal.
On top of that, multiple border counties have either passed or tried to pass ordinances barring anyone from using their roads to travel to get an abortion.
This is not like mid-labor or post-birth abortions, things the Right literally made up to scare people. You will never hear a single abortion rights supporter advocate for stabbing the baby in its head as it is coming down the birth canal. It’s not a thing. On the other hand, making it difficult to travel to get abortions is absolutely something those who oppose abortion want and hope to see happen and have passed legislation regarding.
Last night, Lee went on another tear, claiming that the Left was also lying about IVF being under attack — which sure seems like a strange thing to do just a few days after the Southern Baptist Convention issued a resolution against the practice and one day after all of the Republicans in the Senate, including him, voted against a bill codifying the right to it.
“Not one state is blocking access to IVF,” he wrote on social media. “Not. Even. One. Like so much of what the left pushes these days, this bill is a solution in search of a problem, and could itself create new problems.”
This is not something anyone pulled out of their ass. There are 140 anti-IVF op-eds on The Federalist right now. Anti-abortion groups have been vocally anti-IVF for years.
Additionally, the Alabama state supreme court has ruled that embryos are people, the kind of ruling that could certainly complicate the future of IVF. Multiple other states are also looking to pass personhood bills that could lead to IVF being banned.
Oh, and you might want to take a look at the responses from conservatives to Nikki Haley’s announcement that she supports and even personally used IVF to conceive a child. They’re not too happy about it.
It’s very obviously on the table, and we’re not going to pretend it isn’t just so Republicans can test the waters and boil the frog and inch the Overton Window and do whatever else they have to do to normalize the idea of banning it before going through with it. We’ve seen this movie before and it does not end well.
That being said, one of the big ways the anti-abortion-rights crowd shows their hand is by going around saying that post-birth abortion is perfectly legal in blue states. Now, as someone who does not think we should kill newborn babies, I would never say something like this because, you know, godforbid some nut believes me. If they really cared about those babies, they would not say that just to make Democrats look bad.
There is a reason why we don’t make shit up the way the Right does: We actually take this seriously. We take it seriously enough to actually know what it is these nuts want and what they are advocating for instead of just choosing our own adventure the way so many of them do, usually for a quick “own” or a win on social media. We also take it seriously because we actually care about people. We would not claim that abortion restrictions that do not exist are in effect specifically because we want those who do seek abortion to be safe and to know every option available to them.
Republicans do not require our help to sound like monsters, to pass or try to pass bills restricting reproductive rights. They can do bad all by themselves. However, if Mike Lee cares so very much about not passing laws based on things that are not really happening, he might want to go and talk to his own state of Utah about the Satanic panic they’re trying to bring back.
PREVIOUSLY:
Remember this guy's incredulous smirk when Biden called out the Republicans in the SOTU for wanting to get rid of Social Security? And then they released video of him the next day where he'd called for 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵?
It's not that they lie all the time. It's that they get so fucking indignant and self-righteous when anyone calls them out for it.
Why do people talk about the temperatures in Phoenix going above 110 degrees? It's scare-mongering by partisan weather forecasters.
The fact is, the forecast high today is 109, so there is nothing to worry about.