Former Sen. Jim DeMint, currently president of The Heritage Foundation, offers free dumb to America
Well, maybe Jim DeMint didn't actually become pro-choice. But yesterday on
Meet the Press, he sure
tried to sound like he was.
Here's how he started to defend mandatory ultrasounds for women who have decided to terminate their pregnancy:
JIM DeMINT: And the more the ultrasounds have become part of the law, where a woman gets the opportunity to see that there's a real child, it's beginning to change minds. And I think that's a good thing. It's time that the 3,000 babies we lose every day have some people speaking up for them.
I don't think "opportunity" means what DeMint thinks it means, unless he meant to say mandatory ultrasound laws give women the "opportunity" to choose between breaking or following the law. Fortunately, Rachel Maddow was there to rebut:
RACHEL MADDOW: Women don't get the opportunity with ultrasound. The ultrasound bills are mandated by the state. So if a woman does not want an ultrasound, or if her doctor does not want her to have an ultrasound, if that ultrasound is not medically indicated the state government is stepping in and saying, "You must have this ultrasound by order of the state government." And because of the timing on a lot of these, in a lot of these what is being mandated is a vaginal ultrasound.
To which DeMint replied: But what about all the women who
want the
opportunity for
free forced vaginal ultrasound? Seriously:
DeMINT: She's forgetting about the thousands of women who want an informed choice, who want the opportunity to get a free ultrasound, which they can get, not from Planned Parenthood but from a lot of these pregnancy centers.
No ... Jim DeMint is the one "forgetting" that when the government forces women to undergo medical procedures it's not an "opportunity" and it doesn't matter what they "want." As Rachel said, "it's not a choice—it's a mandated procedure." And, unlike the flow of B.S. from wingnuts like DeMint, it's not always free.