This week, the Supreme Court handed the abortion-rights movement an unalloyed victory. The 5-3 decision in the case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt voids a Texas law that would have made it all but impossible for Texans to terminate pregnancies in their home state. It also threatens scores of similar abortion-inhibiting laws in other states.
At the same time, the ruling casts the stakes of this presidential election into stark relief. Irin Carmon, MSNBC reporter and author of The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joins the show to discuss the implications of the Whole Woman’s Health decision, and the future of the Court.
Also this week, the conclusion of the House’s misbegotten Benghazi investigation serves as the latest reminder of the paranoia and hucksterism running through conservative politics in America. New Republic senior editor Jeet Heer calls in from Toronto to explain how Donald Trump is exploiting this weakness to run the greatest political scam of all time.
Further reading:
- How conservatives groomed the perfect suckers for Trump’s epic spam, by Jeet Heer in the New Republic
- Irin Carmon on what’s next for abortion rights in a post-Whole Woman’s Health world, for NBC News