richards, a former president of planned parenthood and the co-chair of a democratic pac. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. there is a lot of details we don t know about the basis of which the justice department would file a lawsuit against the state of texas. but what is your reaction to hear that doj is preparing to do that? it is really good news, kate. that the administration and the department of justice is taking action against this unconstitutional and cruel law that has gone into effect. as you know, last week more than 7 million women have child bearing age lost their rights literally overnight. this is been something that the republican legislature and republican governor greg abbott have been trying to do for some, many year years and with the inaction of the supreme court, they ve been successful. so welcome this news. it is a long road, though. and of course, millions of women
means to be able to cross state lines. what are the fears among medical providers for women who don t have the means or the opportunity to leave the state? well, chris, it s very concerning. if you re one of the 7 million women of child bearing age in texas and you need this form of health care, you will, in fact, need to travel out of state at your own experience. we know that many people, especially young people and people of color, don t have the ability to do this, the logistics and the cost make it impossible for them. so, again, it s quite concerning to think about what could potentially happen. and if the federal courts allow this law to stand, it s very likely that other conservative states near texas are going to move to pass similar laws in the coming months. chris, if the desire is fewer abortions, expanding access to health care, sex education in schools, and easy access to contraceptives are what allow for that, not making access to medical treatment illegal. and you k
volunteered to work on his campaign, this is what you worked for. every one of them put the politicians on the supreme court who are threatening your rights tonight. leading off our discussion, cecile richard, currently co-chair of american bridge 21st century and dalia lithuania lithwhik. what is the impact in texas tonight? it s devastating, lawrence. and you really laid out the case. about 7 million women of child bearing age in texas lost their right to make their own decisions about their pregnancy
and we re seeing that with the breakthrough infections, that vast majority of those individuals are elderly individuals. so that is another group i think that would warrant it as well. what do you make of the cdc now strengthening its advice that pregnant women should be vaccinated? up until now, they said that the vaccine could be used for pregnant women, they can use the vaccine, now they are strengthening that advice and recommending it. is that significant? absolutely. so this is good news both for pregnant women and also women of child bearing potentials who had expressed concern around the covid-19 vaccine because of concern around fertility and also pregnancy outcomes. and so there is emerging data still being collected on pregnant women and the cdc looked at about 2500 women and did not find anymore adverse pregnancy outcomes than occurs in the general population. so that is good news assuming other pregnancy registries that
the who has a ban on drinking alcohol of all women of child bearing age because of potential harm it could cause to an unborn baby even if a woman isn t pregnant or doesn t plan to have children at all. that s like saying we all need hell mitts because some people play football. don t give them any ideas. not surprising lick they ve have been planned for i had yos saying alcohol isn t great for guys either and women should be able to make these decisions for themselves. but how can this advice be sexist if men can get pregnant oh, my head hurts just thinking about it. maybe because i m pressing my hands against my head t it went away. it s back. anyway. some sources claim the real reason for the proposal was kat s behavior at my barbecue last week.