John Oliver claims it was a 'failure' by Democrats for not doing more to protect Roe v. Wade
On Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Sunday, Oliver opened the show by addressing the Supreme Court decision handed down Friday overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving abortion rights up to the states. Abortion is now illegal in several states with more likely to follow.
“What the Supreme Court has just done is utterly devastating,” Oliver said. “The message it sends is pretty clear: We don’t care if pregnancy kills you. We don’t care if you don’t want to be pregnant. We don’t care about you at all.”
Though Democrats are clearly against the decision, Oliver blamed them for not doing more to stop it.
“There is a huge amount of understandable rage right now, and there are certainly plenty of individuals and institutions worthy of that anger,” Oliver said. “We have talked before, multiple times, about how exactly we got here. The years of planning by anti-abortion forces, and the failure of Democrats to effectively mobilize to stop them.”
While some Democrats have fought back, like liberal district attorneys in red states promising to not enforce abortion bans, others have been slammed for using the situation to fundraise. Overall, Oliver believes the Democrat response has been weak.
“I am not saying that all I want from leaders is shows of anger,” Oliver said, “but it has been depressing to see so many of them treat the end of Roe v. Wade with the solemnity of a funeral instead of the urgency of a f***ing cardiac arrest.”
Video Transcript
JOHN OLIVER: What the Supreme Court has just done is utterly devastating. The message it sends is pretty clear, "We don't care if pregnancy kills you. We don't care if you don't want to be pregnant. We don't care about you at all."
KYLIE MAR: On Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Sunday, Oliver addressed the decision passed down by the Supreme Court on Friday overturning Roe v. Wade. With abortion already illegal in several states, with more likely to follow, Oliver spoke of a bleak outlook for women in those states.
JOHN OLIVER: In states where abortion will now be outlawed, any pregnancy loss past an early cutoff can now potentially be investigated as a crime, which in turn means search histories, browsing histories, text messages, location data, payment data, information from period-tracking apps, prosecutors can examine all of that.
KYLIE MAR: And Oliver blamed Democrats for not doing more to stop this from happening.
JOHN OLIVER: There is a huge amount of understandable rage right now, and there are certainly plenty of individuals and institutions worthy of that anger. We have talked before, multiple times, about how exactly we got here. The years of planning by anti-abortion forces, and the failure of Democrats to effectively mobilize to stop them.
KYLIE MAR: Democrats were slammed over the weekend for fundraising off of the Supreme Court decision. Though, some in office have promised to do their part to minimize the negative effect it could have on their constituents. But Oliver believes the Democrat response so far has been weak.
JOHN OLIVER: I am not saying that all I want from leaders is shows of anger. But it has been depressing to see so many of them treat the end of Roe v. Wade with the solemnity of a funeral instead of the urgency of a cardiac arrest.
