Season 3 Episode 4
On this episode, Jay begins the show trying to discuss the President of the United States accusing the people of Papua New Guinea of eating his uncle in World War II, but fails miserably to hold it together. He reviews the Arizona Supreme Court ruling that an abortion law written in 1864 is Constitutional by examining the wording of the law and addressing criticisms that by virtue of its source the law is somehow unreasonable. Not forming any opinion on the question of prosecuting women for abortions, the idea that killing your children before they are born could carry a punishment may be both unpopular and unworkable, but it is not a wildly unreasonable anachronism as characterized by its critics. The bulk of the show is responding to an older episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and his claims about the dangers of abortion restrictive laws. Oliver places na emphasis on cases requiring emergency medical interventions to make the case that poorly worded abortion restrictive legislation is dangerous. Each tragic scenario is examined and demonstrates: 1 – Tragedy is often unavoidable, and when confronted with terrible situations where all good options are good, we are left to determine what is the best thing we can do in a bad situation. Seeking a life affirming response born out of deep love for all human life is an option that is rarely discussed when making the case that intentionally ending the life of an unborn child faced with a negative medical prognosis will fix the problem. 2 – Each case used as an example demonstrates further that the problem isn’t necessarily bad law but bad, bad, bad, doctors including one Texas doctor who reportedly would not remove an already deceased fetus from inside a mother out of fear for possible repercussions. Bad, bad, bad, doctors are a bigger problem than bad laws. 3 – Finally, we cannot craft law from extreme cases. John Oliver believes all abortion ought to be allowed, making the mistake of assuming that since an abortion requires medical professionals be involved abortion must universally be a medical decision. It is not. It is overwhelmingly sought for elective reasons, and pointing out we need to get better at dealing with rare cases which threaten the life or long-term health of the mother does nothing to excuse 90% + of abortions. It just hides elective abortion behind a veil of hard cases to give the act of defending the routine practice of abortion an unearned air of compassion.
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