Elie Mystal: Conservatives Think a Fetus 'Should Have the Same Legal Rights as Full-Grown Black People'

MSNBC regular and The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal said Wednesday on “The ReidOut” that conservatives believe a fetus “should have the same legal rights as full-grown black people” while reacting to the Supreme Court oral arguments on Mississippi’s law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Mystal said, “Conservatives want you to think that a fetus – a fetus who is pre-viability, which means it cannot exist outside of its mother, it cannot live outside of, of the womb, has the same – should have the same legal rights as full-grown black people in this country. And that the fact that it doesn’t is some kind of miscarriage of justice – no pun intended – and that the people who shouldn’t have the full rights are the women who are carrying the fetus.”

He continued, “Now, I can prove that a fetus is not deserving of full personhood rights because if it were, they would be arguing that the fetus should be given citizenship. They would be arguing that the fetus should have other rights like a right to education, a right to health care. They would be arguing that I should be able to claim fetuses as dependents on my taxes, which you’ll note, they’re not.”

Mystal added, “They’re only concerned about the right of a fetus when that right can be used to diminish the rights of women. And that is what the conservatives are all about on the Supreme Court. That is what you heard in stark and I – I think you used the right word, offensive language throughout the court’s arguments today. But this is the day that conservatives have been planning for a generation.”

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