Serious question: when did Joe Scarborough become rabidly “pro-choice?” As a congressman, Scarborough had a strong pro-life voting record (including voting to prohibit the abortion pill), with a 100% rating from the National Right to Life Committee, and 0% from NARAL and Planned Parenthood.

But as an MSNBC host, all the incentives are the opposite. Today, as he parrots “pro-choice” rhetoric, Scarborough could well be a spokesman for Planned Parenthood or NARAL.

Thus, on today’s Morning Joe, commenting on the South Carolina senate having voted down a bill restricting abortion, Scarborough said:

“[As] one of the Republican legislators said, women said, in South Carolina, it’s out of The Handmaid’s Tale. You have men telling women what they can and can’t do with their bodies even when they are close to dying.

This is — and — and I will say, aside from all these personal tragedies, and — and these old men telling young women what they can do with their bodies?

As I said this past week. A 67-year-old bachelor with no children from South Carolina screaming about abortion and –and, and, and banning abortion? This is surreal.”

Scarborough’s referring to a previous rant in the 6 am hour on Monday after Sen. Graham fought with Dana Bash on CNN Sunday: “It’s fascinating how much — how angry and incensed a 67-year-old bachelor with no children gets over the health care of women, young women, teenagers, sometimes tragically 10-year-old, 11-year-old rape victims….again, it’s really something, how, again, a 67-year-old bachelor with no children suddenly is so incensed about how a 14-year-old girl and her family handles her being raped by an uncle.”

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So Scarborough approvingly cites a description of men supporting pro-life legislation as being something out of The Handmaid’s Tale. Has Joe been hanging out with Tiffany Cross, his former network colleague who eventually become intolerable even for MSNBC, who, as here, regularly made such references?

And if childless people shouldn’t speak about abortion, what about Vice President Harris? Apparently if you’re on the “right side” of abortion, it doesn’t matter if you’re childless, or married, or anything. 

So, Joe, if older, childless bachelors are forbidden from speaking out against abortion, perhaps you could prepare a handy chart, informing us as to what various identities are permitted to speak on various issues. For example, at what age do childless bachelors lose their right to openly oppose abortion? What about Pope Francis? 

For that matter, Joe, are twice-divorced, thrice-married, middle-aged men permitted to host TV shows wherein they regularly expound on a variety of societal issues?

On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, in a reference to Lindsey Graham, saying that it was “surreal” that a 67-year-old bachelor with no children would speak out forcefully against abortion was sponsored in part by Skechers, GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the meningitis B vaccine, and ClearChoice.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
4/28/23
6:39 am EDT

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Meanwhile, South Carolina’s state senators have again rejected a bill that would have banned nearly all abortions in the state. Six Republicans voted against the legislation yesterday. It would have banned the procedure at conception with exceptions for rape or incest through the first trimester, fetal abnormalities in the fetus, or if a woman’s life is in danger.

Republican female senators took the floor to voice their opposition, saying that while they are pro-life, they feel this bill goes too far.

STATE SENATOR: Some of the preaching has sounded, and I just have to point this out, some of it has sounded condescending, demeaning, cold, and judgmental. No matter the intent, there are millions of women, millions of women in this state who feel like they’ve been personally addressed in this legislation. They’re millions of women who feel like they have not been heard. And that’s why I’m standing up here this long.

SECOND STATE SENATOR: And I don’t want any woman to have abortions. And to have another senator sit there and tell me that I’m not pro-life because I don’t say no woman can ever have an abortion? That is crazy. I don’t want any women to have an abortion. But most certainly they should be allowed to have some access to what the senator from Anderson has already admitted is health care.

THIRD STATE SENATOR: It’s about real people. With real lives. Who face real challenges that require them to make real decisions.That are best for them and their families. Reproductive rights are human rights.

MIKA: Abortion is currently legal in the state through 22 weeks of pregnancy. This is now the third time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that a near-total abortion ban has failed in the South Carolina senate. 

They keep trying, but, Joe, you know, Republicans are missing their nose in front of their face. Because these are realities that will come to a home or a family near them, where a woman has a problem and cannot get the health care she needs.

We just showed on our show yesterday a woman from Texas who nearly died, and she had to wait until a hospital board decided whether she was [screams] sick enough! to get a termination. So she nearly died, and her life was on the line. The baby was not going to make it, and she’s waiting and –she’s septic, and she’s waiting for a hospital board to decide whether or not she could receive
health care!

JOE SCARBOROUGH: It’s –it’s just shocking. It’s astounding. It’s, one of the Republican legislators said, women said, in South Carolina, it’s out of The Handmaid’s Tale. You have men telling women what they can and can’t do with their bodies even when they are close to dying.

This is — and — and I will say, aside from all these personal tragedies, and — and these old men telling young women what they can do with their bodies?

As I said this past week. A 67-year-old bachelor with no children from South Carolina screaming about abortion and –and, and, and banning abortion? This is surreal.