(Video: Fox News)
Fireworks erupted between two ideologically opposed Fox News contributors Friday as they passionately debated the outcome of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The argument between left-winger Jessica Tarlov and right-winger Leo Terrell began as Tarlov offered her thoughts on Friday’s stunning SCOTUS ruling. Speaking on Fox News’s “The Story,” she argued that the ruling sets a “terrible precedent.”
“The system may have worked insofar as they are allowed to do this, but they’re ignoring the fact that it sets a terrible precedent for what is to come. And I understand that Alito made it clear that he didn’t think that this would expand to contraception and same-sex marriage, but Clarence Thomas wrote on his own that he absolutely thought that those things should be reevaluated,” she said.
Tarlov then accused Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch of having lied during their confirmation hearings.
The latter claim triggered protests from both Terrell and show host Martha MacCallum. Out of fairness for Tarlov, MacCallum then let her finish her thoughts.
“What these justices left in 13 states today that have trigger laws where this comes into effect and soon to be 26 laws within 30 days or so is that women who were in some cases raped or have a baby as a product of incest cannot get reproductive health care. … States with personhood bills, for instance, may affect whether we can have IVF treatments. They’re going to start saying that embryos that are in a frozen locker are suddenly people too,” Tarlov continued.
“It’s going to affect women with less money, more specifically. Women of color as well. And just telling people oh, suck it up if you don’t like it and cross state lines, that’s an undue burden on people who should be able to make these choices,” she contended.
As Tarlov spoke, Terrell could be seen growling, sighing, and groaning in growing displeasure. When his turn to speak finally arrived, he let it all out, slamming Tarlov for being “wrong” about everything and going in especially hard on her for citing “women of color” as a reason why Roe v. Wade wouldn’t have been overturned.
“For you to inject the race card! … Twenty million black babies [have been] aborted since 1973!” he said.
With his voice angrily raised, he continued by offering Tarlov a brief legal lesson.
“Let me just focus on the law because that’s what I think I know. These justices looked at the Constitution and said we don’t see anything about abortion. The 14th Amendment was created after the civil rights [movement]. It was about racial equality, period,” he said.
“What these five justices did were they interpreted the Constitution and they refused to make a political compromise. They followed the law. Now you may not like the law, but we are a nation of laws, and that’s what they did.”
Terrell concluded his thoughts by slamming Tarlov for complaining about women having to cross state lines.
“And for you to make reference to the inability to people to travel. This is not 1950. Interstate travel is legal for every America in this country. That’s the law. That is the absolute law,” he said.
Leo Terrell nuked that lady beside him… looked like @AriFleischer was trying not to laugh. pic.twitter.com/XWzrlEvc4U
— PBR Streetgang Actual 🇺🇸 (@pbrstreetgang_) June 24, 2022
After Terrell finished speaking, fellow Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer pushed back on Tarlov’s concerns about contraception potentially being banned.
“If any legislature is foolish enough to want to ban contraception, let them try. They will all get voted out of office. This is not the 1920s or 1930s. But the principal point is the people’s representatives and legislatures have the right to make these decisions, but the Constitution and the Declaration grant us the inalienable right to life,” he said.
Next up was Tarlov again. She responded by calling for Republican legislatures to enact more entitlements to help the women who must now face the apparently horrible fate of giving birth.
“The point that I was making … [was that] the implications of what they’ve done are so dire for millions of women across this country. And I would like to see if these conservative legislatures are going to suddenly grant maternity leave for everybody, if there are going to be entitlements put in to help mothers who are now going to be taking care of babies that they did not want, if every man that takes part in conceiving a child … if suddenly he’s on the hook for child support? Will we have universal pre-k everywhere?” she said.
As she spoke, Terrell grew angrier and angrier, up to the point that he sighed loudly and exclaimed, “Oh, God!”
This triggered Tarlov.
“Stop saying ‘oh god.’ This is what it looks like out there in the world,” she said.
Terrell promptly replied, “I can’t believe you’re using this quality time to talk to push a Democrat agenda. Go ahead. I’ll be quiet. Go ahead, keep talking. It’s ridiculous.”
Thoroughly political decision and an attack on the autonomy of poor and working class women. Culmination of decades of right wing activism while Dems stood by and did nothing. https://t.co/OdjJFSX9Nm
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) June 24, 2022
Tarlov then tried continuing by noting that she’s a woman who just went through a pregnancy, but that triggered another “ohhh” from Terrell.
“I’m sorry — were you pregnant recently?!” Tarlov responded with exasperation.
“Every time I come on this show, I’m attacked,” Terrell then said, apparently feeling he was the one who was being wronged.
MacCallum then broke in to refocus the discussion. She noted that abortion pills are widely available these days, and she also observed that thanks to technology, the use of traditional abortion services has declined notably in the past 20 years.
She then asked Tarlov to explain why Democrats went from saying abortion “should be safe and legal and rare” to twerking in the streets in celebration of dead babies.
Tarlov replied by saying she isn’t one of the twerkers and asserting that her only concern is highlighting “how important having access to reproductive health care is for women.”
“And to your point about the decline in abortions, that’s exactly the reason that Roe v. Wade should stay in place. There was a spike in the late 80s to early 90s, and as you point out yourself, Martha, it has been declining since then. What will happen now that the justices have made this decision is that there will be a spike again, but they will be unsafe abortions, they will be back-alley abortions in many cases,” she said.
MacCallum then interrupted her to point out, “It doesn’t seem like there’s a need for that because there’s going to be transportation, there’s going to be places where you can get an abortion.”
Tarlov replied in exasperation, “If you work at Amazon, they’re going to pay for it for you!? How many women work two jobs, right, and support a family already, and get pregnant, and then you tell them it’s just no big deal, like Leo says, just hop on the highway, no big deal.”
That ticked off Terrell.
“I did not say what you just said — those are classic Democrat talking points,” he exclaimed.
He then concluded the discussion with one final point.
“Martha, if you scan all these other left-wing programs, you know what they’re saying? Like how this subject is about Roe v. Wade but they expanded it to everything on the Democrat platform. For example, they’re talking about this affecting interracial marriages. A total disconnect,” he said.
“The 14th Amendment, equal protection, prevents that, but that’s not stopping them from misrepresenting the truth about the limitation of this ruling. One final point: You have Maxine Waters, you have people basically arguing violence. Maxine just said a few minutes ago ignore what they said. That is a total disregard to our branches of government!”
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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