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The Missouri legislature’s war on reproductive freedoms has been in full swing for years now, but in recent weeks, it’s reached an absolute fever pitch. In addition to passing one of the many disingenuously named “fetal heartbeat” bills we’ve seen in anti-choice states lately, the state came dangerously close to becoming the first in the nation to have zero legal abortion providers.

If you remember, the St. Louis Planned Parenthood nearly lost its license to perform abortions and is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the Missouri Department of Health to make sure that doesn’t happen. The health department made a number of demands on the clinic, most of which Planned Parenthood complied with, despite the fact that one of those demands was something Missouri’s remaining abortion providers are feeling the need to apologize to patients for–and something that’s being compared, not lightly, to sexual assault.

One of the state’s requirements on these providers was to add an additional pelvic exam to the abortion process. This is one of the most clearcut examples of what we mean when we say we don’t want the government interfering in the discussions between pregnant people and medical professionals, and what it can look like when they do.

Multiple doctors have come out to say this pelvic exam is medically unnecessary, and only exists to add an extra hurdle to the process of seeking an abortion.

Today I was forced by the state of Missouri to perform an unnecessary pelvic exam on a patient terminating her pregnancy for a fetal anomaly. She is heartbroken over her situation and I was forced to do an invasive, uncomfortable exam. It broke me as a physician to do this to her

— DrAmyA (@AmyAddante) June 3, 2019

The Kansas City Star Editorial Board has spoken out against Missouri’s unnecessary pelvic exams for patients terminating a pregnancy.

A St. Louis OBGYN wrote “It broke me a physician to do this to her.”
https://t.co/wQhENxhunM

— Amy Siskind 🏳️‍🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) June 7, 2019

I would hope this wouldn’t have to be said, but our bodies are not a f*cking game and invasive medical procedures are not supposed to be used as a deterrent to receiving care. In an op-ed for the St. Louis American, OBGYN and public health expert Dr. Colleen McNicholas wrote, “This is nothing short of intimidation and harassment fueled by politics.” Last week, Rachel Maddow covered the state of abortion in Missouri and as a (transplanted) Missourian who writes frequently about abortion, I will say that I miss the days when things were bad but not bad enough to be considered national news.

Shocking. State-ordered, medically unnecessary pelvic exams, even if the Dr. doesn’t think it’s needed, for people seeking an abortion in MO. That sounds like state-sponsored sexual assault. https://t.co/xmIZugAN1y

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) June 9, 2019

There are calls for the director of Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services–Dr. Randall W. Williams, who is, amazingly, an obstetrician and gynecologist himself and therefore knows how unnecessary these procedures are–to resign or be removed from office. That’s not too likely considering how viciously anti-choice Missouri’s governor is, but that doesn’t change the fact that Williams has turned his department into, as one activist organization so accurately put it, “an instrument of abuse.”

It was Randall Williams who lit on this idea to force Missouri women who still want to go to that state’s last clinic to have an unnecessary, invasive, medically pointless pelvic exam as the new price of asking for an abortion at that last clinic. pic.twitter.com/L3zQQFoPS5

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) June 8, 2019

Missouri lawmakers are desperate not to give a voice to voters. HB 126, the aggressively anti-choice bill the state recently passed, which would not only act as a “trigger law,” banning abortions outright and immediately should Roe v Wade be overturned by the conservative-stacked Supreme Court, but it includes an “emergency clause” preventing voters from overturning the law via a referendum.

Missouri’s lawmakers pretend to care about their constituents; they say they’re striving to “protect women.” But there is no reason to deny voters the option to take on the issue other than that they are scared those voters won’t support their ultra-restrictive bans. Because even in Missouri, one of the most consistently anti-abortion states in the country, the voters are not as anti-choice as their representatives.

Taking power away from voters and weaponizing the use of invasive medical procedures–tell me again how Republicans are the party dedicated upholding “American” values.

(image: Jacob Moscovitch/Getty Images)

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As a freshman member of Congress, California’s Katie Porter has already made a name for herself with her incredible questioning skills. A number of her questions from congressional hearings have gone viral, and for good reason. In addition to being demonstrably brilliant, she clearly cares deeply about her constituents and refuses to back down from difficult conversations.

Over the weekend, she brought all those qualities to Real Time with Bill Maher to talk about, among other things, abortion. Maher broached the subject of Joe Biden’s recently reversed support of the Hyde Amendment and asked Porter to explain what that was.

“The Hyde Amendment was a law passed in 1976 when I was 2 years old that has not been changed since, that prohibits federal funds to be used to provide women with reproductive health care such as abortions,” she said.

Maher speculated that Biden doesn’t actually care about abolishing the Hyde Amendment so much as he cares about getting the 2020 Democratic nomination (hey look, I agree with Bill Maher about something!), and wondered if he would be alienating centrist Democrats with this new stance.

Porter wasn’t interested in talking about those political calculations, though. “This is just an issue of right and wrong,” she said. “I’m the only person sitting at this table who has ever had to face this these kinds of healthcare decisions, and Joe Biden is simply trying to make a political decision here, and failing still to recognize that this is a personal decision.” (She also noted that even when he did talk about the issue, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to say the word abortion.) “Women cannot have social and economic equality without the right to control their bodies, without bodily autonomy, period, full stop,” she said.

As Porter said, she was the only person on the show’s panel who has had to make these sorts of personal healthcare decisions, but that didn’t stop Maher from attempting to center the conversation around himself. He told Porter that he’s pro-choice but that he’s “squishy” on the issue of abortion because his mother was told after having a very difficult pregnancy with his sister, that she shouldn’t have another child. So he “could have been on the cutting room floor,” as he put it.

Bill Maher is so dumb. A condom would have prevented him being born as well. Is he “squishy” on condoms?

Also Katie Porter is my new superhero https://t.co/E5dFp1scei

— Mia Brett 👸🏻 (@QueenMab87) June 9, 2019

Bill Maher is like if mansplaining were a person.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) June 9, 2019

Maher’s argument is ridiculous because what he’s describing is what this situation should look like: A woman and her doctor had a private conversation about her health and her reproductive options, and then that woman got to make the decision that she felt most comfortable with. Inserting government legislation into that scenario wouldn’t have helped anyone. Which is what Porter told Maher, while also making an absolutely brutal and hilarious dig at his expense.

“Look, your mom made her choice,” Porter said, adding with perfect timing, “and we’re all here with the consequences of that choice.”

FACT: Women cannot have social and economic equality without bodily autonomy. No matter who it is, every woman should have the right to make healthcare decisions for herself. pic.twitter.com/5wd2BaPz5x

— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) June 9, 2019

Maher–who, according to IMDB, has had two female writers with three episodes between them over the course of the show’s 17 seasons–did not react well to getting so completely owned on his own show. He stood up and leaned over the desk, addressing the audience directly. “First of all, fuck you, you can go watch another show,” he told them, with the air of someone trying to come across as joking when they are definitely not. “We got a lot of them here if I’m not doing it for you.”

If you play the clip of Bill Maher reacting to a guest getting a laugh with the sound off, it looks like he has been betrayed by his most trusted associates.

— John Levenstein (@johnlevenstein) June 9, 2019

You know how you can tell when a comedian is thin-skinned? When someone else is funnier than he is, and he loses his mind and yells at the audience for laughing. https://t.co/lcHGe4YYTC

— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) June 8, 2019

“I’m not arguing what you’re pretending I’m arguing for, all of you on this panel, and you assholes who cheered that,” Maher insisted, which is Peak Defensiveness–playing devil’s advocate and then pouting when your argument gets torn to shreds. He wasn’t ready for Rep. Katie Porter, and that was a huge mistake on his part.

(image: screencap)

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