Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), now an NBC News contributor, said Monday on MSNBC ‘s “Deadline” that the new abortion law in Texas was so “extreme,” it would help Democrats win elections.
McCaskill said, “Well, the Supreme Court has done something that is far beyond what I imagined they would do. I was very worried about Roe v. Wade standing in light of the case from Mississippi that they’re going to hear in a few weeks. But the notion that in the shadow docket, in the dark of night, they would have this kind of statutory BS is really startling. Make no mistake, they put a bow on a law that says you no longer have to have standing to bring a social grievance to court. All you have to do is think you have some kind of proof that somebody intended to help somebody get an abortion.”
She continued, “Imagine a mother who is trying to help their 13-year-old daughter when she just found out that this daughter had been repeatedly raped by her boyfriend. Imagine her being the one that is pulled into court and asked to pay money she clearly would not have and legal expenses she would not have just for trying to help her daughter under those circumstances. It’s very extreme. I think it’s politically very bad for the Republicans that they have gone this far. It appears there’s no stopping this element of the Republican Party. Now what the Democrats need to do is, yes, fight back, but also, make sure they elevate this issue, so every woman in America understands what these folks are doing.”
She added, “The vast majority of Americans would reject this law on its face. The extreme nature of this law is what would, I believe, 80% or plus would say, of course, there should be an exception for rape and incest. That was, in fact, the issue that got me re-elected.”
On Democrats in Congress, McCaskill concluded, “They need to bring up a codification of Roe for a vote to put people on the spot that are pro-choice and are Republicans in Democratic areas. We need to be aggressive, but we also need to be realistic. This is about us winning elections. What they are doing in Texas is going to help us win elections.”
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