Bill Maher dove into controversial territory – so what else is new? — discussing the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade that enshrined abortion rights in the U.S. a half century ago. “For me, I personally — maybe this is an outlier attitude — I never have thought life itself was particularly precious,” the comic said on his HBO show “Real Time” Friday nigh. “I’m sorry, I don’t.”
He began the evening tossing in a few jokes linking Cinco de Mayo with the ongoing debate (and outrage) over the Supreme Court’s draft opinion that would reverse women’s right to abortion nationwide and leave the matter to individual states. “Women, I gotta tell you, if you can’t remember what you did last night, you might want to get the abortion now,” he said, adding that Louisiana wants to pass a law that says, “flat out,” if you get an abortion, you get charged with murder. “Wow. Suddenly getting the right pronoun doesn’t seem so big, does it?”
After moving to his guest panel — Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor Paul Begala and former NBC Sports reporter Michele Tafoya – Maher opened up on the topic of the SCOTUS draft opinion.
“People detest speaking about abortion, so let’s communicate about it,” Maher said, kicking things off. “Is this heading to be the galvanizing problem the left thinks it will?”
After Begala voiced his fear that the country would be reverting back to the practices of 1931 and that Michigan and Texas have laws that offer no exceptions for rape or incest, Tafoya offered her thoughts, “There’s gotta be a level at which we say, ‘This is a human currently being capable of dwelling outside the womb.’”
When the Roe v. Wade decision came down in 1973, Maher said, abortion was not a partisan issue. “It became a partisan issue because of the Christian right. They made it a partisan issue. They made it so that it became where the Democrats were for abortion being safe and legal and Republicans were also — when their mistresses got pregnant, of course,” he joked.
But then he turned serious: “It is a gut thing. I mean, you know, we talk about the Constitution and laws and rights, and it really comes down to, ‘Do you like women or do you like babies?’”
After offering his “outlier” opinion that life isn’t particularly precious, Maher continued: “No, I’m serious. I think life is for the living. Until you’re born, you’re not living. OK, I mean, yes, it’s becoming a life but – it’s not.
“We wouldn’t miss you if you’re not born because we never knew you,” he said. “You’re not going to miss anything because you never were born. I’m serious. So that’s my position. I get that that’s not most people’s position.”
A segment of the discussion can be seen in the clip above.
