Carol Moseley Braun Reacts to Texas Abortion Law

FMR. SEN. CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (D-IL): I welcome the opportunity to have this conversation because it’s an important one for the world, and particularly for American women, who may not see the parallels and may not see the connection between what’s going on in Afghanistan and what’s going on in Texas. But the fact of the matter is, you can draw a straight line from one to the other. And it all — it has to do with culture. It goes back, actually, to have some medieval legal precepts that had been around forever, and that we thought we were changing, but I guess we weren’t — not as much change as we thought we had.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Senator, just what you just said is going to create shockwaves are in the Republican and probably conservative circles. But I just would like you to explain sort of what you mean, because, obviously, in Afghanistan, you have got this Islamic fundamentalist group that have taken over again. They don’t have the same constitutional guarantees, despite the rights that they have won over the last 20 years, as women in America. How significant is it that something that was guaranteed, Roe vs. Wade, by the Supreme Court, by the Constitution for the women of America, despite the political and religious fault lines around it, how significant is it for women’s rights in general going forward? Because Texas was just a test case. There’s another one coming up in the fall.

BRAUN: It’s a very significant change, and it’s a very significant challenge. And people need to wake up and pay attention to what’s going on here. The fact is, when I referred to ancient antique legal doctrines, the whole idea of culture, which existed from the Middle Ages, right, that said that women could not make decisions for themselves, we too addled-brain or too small- brained to make a decision, it’s one of the underpinnings of male supremacy. And it is. I mean, and it’s one of the underpinnings also of white supremacy. It’s the same stuff. And so the idea that somebody has to make decisions for you, and you’re not capable of making decisions for your own life is deeply rooted in our legal system. And so that is what is being challenged, frankly, across the board, and it’s not just Texas. It’s really — it really is an ideological — it’s a cultural touchstone that people, frankly, have been debating about an arguing about. And you mentioned guarantees in the Constitution. Roe was just a decision of the Supreme Court. It was not a guarantee. And so, just like Plessy vs. Ferguson did the same thing, said the black people had no rights at all, and ensconced white supremacy, this issue of Roe being overturned by the Supreme Court is one that is very significant. And we need to look closely at it and pay attention and be alert and recognize what — the challenge that it is to our liberties, because, at the end of the day, the idea that women’s rights are human rights is exactly the point.