Late-night host Busy Philipps says “we all need to be talking more” about abortion, but what she really means is that pro-abortion voices should do all of the talking.
After Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed into law a “heartbeat bill,” which would ban abortion around the sixth week of pregnancy, Philipps criticized the controversial law on her show, “Busy Tonight.”
“Here at ‘Busy Tonight’ we try not to be overtly political,” she said. “But as it turns out, just trying to be, like, a woman in the world is political.”
The host, who is not from (or in) Georgia, said the law signed on Tuesday made her “genuinely really scared for women and girls all over this country” before arguing that “we all need to be talking more and sharing our stories more.”
She began her monologue with an appeal to open-minded discourse: “I hope that whatever it is that you believe personally that maybe you’ll be open to hearing what I’m saying.” But what followed was a fear-mongering address that made it clear that in her mind, there’s only one side to the issue.
“I know that people feel very strongly about abortion, but let me just say this. Women and their doctors are in the best position to make informed decisions about what is best for them, nobody else,” Philipps said before applause from the audience.
Translation: Only a sexist or a retrogressive, medical-field-hating Luddite would oppose abortion. Forget the babies, silly, just let the woman choose.
“Every woman deserves compassion and care, not judgment and interference when it comes to their own bodies,” Philipps continued.
Translation: Anti-abortion legislation is a form of judgment and shame used to enforce patriarchal norms on female victims. If you support anti-abortion legislation, you’re judgmental.
Philipps then abruptly changed the subject to Monday’s Met Gala to make a point about the oppression of women in America.
“Is it kind of jarring? Yes, it is also kind of jarring,” she said. “But guess what? That’s what being a f—ing woman is, having a regular Tuesday and then suddenly being reminded that people are trying to police your body.”
Translation: Abortion is just a male legislator’s power trip.
Philipps shared that she had an abortion at age 15, and asserted that “one in four women will have an abortion before age 45.” She trotted out the trope that abortion bans will simply encourage unsafe abortions, which is not a good argument against an issue where the real debate should be whether, or at what point, the fetus inside the womb has the rights of a human.
It’s tragic that Philipps may have felt she had to get an abortion at such a young age. No one should be in that situation, but that doesn’t negate the rights of a child in the womb. When pro- and anti-abortion advocates can’t even agree on whether or not that being is actually a person, though, their arguments hit a stalemate.
If the baby were not a human being, then Philipps would be right about what she said. But if it is, and that’s what modern biology suggests, then it’s clear that she’s just manipulating the issue in such a way as to shut off debate. She’s not having an “open” conversation about anything until she addresses abortion’s inherent trade-off between one life and another.
