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Molly Jong-Fast: In 'Post-Roe America, Everything We Have Can Be Taken Away'
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More than four years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the shrieking harpies of MS NOW still cry about the Supreme Court acknowledging the Constitution didn’t guarantee the right to kill babies. And since President Donald Trump is still adding to the most pro-life administration in recent history, they once again took to the cameras on Wednesday’s episode of The 11th Hour to suggest that everything women “have can be taken away.”Guest host Catherine Rampell and one of her panelists, political commentator Molly Jong-Fast, who publicly called pro-life laws “dystopian,” blabbed about the exchange between Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche. Cruz asked if Blanche would enforce the Comstock Act, which bans the mailing of “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion," and "every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion."But according to Rampell, the law doesn’t actually mean what it says:Senator Ted Cruz asked Todd Blanche whether he would commit to enforcing the Comstock Act, which is this dead letter law that basically says, you know, it's an anti-obscenity law… things cannot be mailed through the postal service, which has been interpreted to mean by the far-right, by the Project 2025 people, that that means you cannot ship Mifepristone, an abortion and miscarriage treatment pill, through the mail. First, abortions and miscarriages aren’t the same thing, no matter how much Democrats pretend they are. Secondly, you don’t need to be on the “far-right” to understand the law’s words perfectly. Rampell wasn’t wrong when she said “it hasn't been enforced for decades, it's this law from the 1800s.” But since the law was never repealed, if Blanche, as Attorney General, decided to prosecute violators, that would be well within his jurisdiction. Jong-Fast shared her doubts about the practical enforcement of the law:I think they're going to have some trouble doing it just because of, like, the sheer volume of mail and the incredible incompetence of this administration and how you're going to, you know, just put this in action. She also described some Republicans’ desire to enforce the Comstock Act as a “fantasy they all have. . . they're going to make it so they can't ship abortion pills, and it will mean that there will be many fewer abortions.”We should hope for many fewer abortions, since between 20 and 30 percent of Gen Z were killed in the womb, but that’s not the way these leftists see it. To them, the more abortions, the better. That's "our rights."Jong-Fast also demonstrated that, like Rampell, she’s never read the text of the Comstock Act:But the idea of it is very scary, right? The idea that they can go in and use laws that we know - that are so antiquated and are not - were not created for this, and are not about this, to take away things from women, rights, health, you know, this is all this post-Roe America where everything we have can be taken away.Again, the Comstock Act literally says it was made to restrict the mailing of abortion material. We’ve heard the lie that all women’s health and rights hinge on whether or not they have abortion on-demand for years from bitter women who aren’t the least bit grateful they weren’t aborted. Instead, they’ll continue to cry about how some imaginary regime oppresses them by making it slightly harder for them to murder their children. ‘Life for me, not for thee.’The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: MS NOW's The 11th Hour7/15/2611:15:50 p.m. EasternCATHERINE RAMPELL: One thing that I think a lot of people are concerned about, Molly, is his [Blanche's] exchange with Ted Cruz today over the Comstock Act.MOLLY JONG-FAST: Right. RAMPELL: So basically, Senator Ted Cruz asked Todd Blanche whether he would commit to enforcing the Comstock Act--JONG-FAST: Right. RAMPELL: --which is this dead letter law--JONG-FAST: Right.RAMPELL: --that basically says, you know, it's an anti-obscenity law--JONG-FAST: Right.RAMPELL: --things cannot be mailed through the postal service, which has been interpreted to mean by the far right, by the--JONG-FAST: Yeah.RAMPELL: --Project 2025 people, that that means you cannot ship mifepristone--JONG-FAST: Yes, yes.RAMPELL: --an abortion and miscarriage treatment pill, through the mail. So, you know, it hasn't been enforced for decades, it's this law from the 1800s. How big of a deal do you think this could be, if Todd Blanche does as he says and looks into whether he can enforce this law?How big of a deal would that be for women's health, and how big of a deal would that be politically?MOLLY JONG-FAST: Okay, so this is something that the right has been very excited about for a long time. It's an 18th century obscenity law. It has - the Comstock Act was one of these, sort of, zombie laws that people stopped - you know, it was never taken off the books because it hadn't been used--RAMPELL: Right.JONG-FAST: --in hundreds of years. What I think - look, I think they talked about it, a couple of other senators talked about it during the hearings, too. It's definitely the fantasy they all have is that they're going to make it so they can't ship abortion bills, and - abortion pills - and it will mean that there will be many fewer abortions. I think they're going to have some trouble doing it just because of, like, the sheer volume of mail and the incredible incompetence of this administration and how you're going to, you know, just put this in action. But the idea of it is very scary, right? The idea that they can go in and use laws that we know - that are so antiquated and are not - were not created for this and are not about this to take away things from women, rights, health, you know, this is all this post-Roe America where everything we have can be taken away.RAMPELL: Yeah, I will also point out that there are now efforts afoot by this administration to make it harder to ship mifepristone and ballots through the mail, but make it easier to ship--RAMPELL AND JONG-FAST: --guns.