John Oliver Torches the Left for Failing to Prevent Alito’s ‘Horror Show’ Roe Draft, Bashes Obama and Clinton as ‘Squeamish’ on the Issue

John Oliver addressed the Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Sunday, slamming Democrats for failing to secure reproductive rights.

“Our first main story tonight concerns the fact that this week saw the leak of a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that looks set to strike down Roe v. Wade,” Oliver said on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight. “And while the fate of Roe may not have been a surprise, the draft itself was still a horror show.”

Oliver first went after the Supreme Court justices for attempting to end the nationwide right to legal abortion, noting that 25 percent of women have had an abortion and that six in 10 of them were already mothers.

“Some who get abortions are survivors of rape or incest, others might need one for medical reasons, but also just to be clear, some will be seeking abortion because they fucking want one, and this is very much about them, too,” he said. “This is a fight for people’s right to have control over their bodies. It’s about bodily autonomy.”

The host then turned his attention to Democrats and elected officials, faulting them for not being aggressive enough in the fight to protect abortion rights.

Oliver praised former Representative Bella Abzug, as she argued that Congress still needed to pass legislation ensuring the right to an abortion shortly after the initial Roe decision.

“But, of course, they didn’t do that. Nor did they do it as the anti-abortion movement kicked into high gear in the late 1970s, with the support of evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell, who helped elevate the abortion issue as a way of motivating conservative voters to the polls,” Oliver said. “They didn’t even do it as antiabortion legislators managed to pass a thousand restrictions into law at the state level.”

Oliver specifically called out former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama for being “squeamish in their defense of abortion,” noting that Clinton argued it should be “safe, legal and rare.”

The host also hit at Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for “pointing the finger of blame firmly in one direction,” and faulting Donald Trump’s Republican Party, despite the fact that the party has “been advocating for this exact outcome for decades now.”

“This is just not a recent development at all. Because while, yes, Trump did pick 1/3 of this court, including a seat for [Neil Gorsuch] that was stolen for him, that was the result of decades of work by anti-abortion forces,” he said. “Long before Trump ever even considered running for office, conservatives were openly announcing their intention to overturn Roe.”

Oliver later pointed to resources that people can turn to if they’re struggling financially, including abortion funds such as Brigid Alliance and the Lilith and Yellowhammer funds.

“But these are clearly just stopgap solutions to deal with an immediate crisis. Long term, we need elected officials to stop tiptoeing around the issue of abortion and take steps to properly safeguard it,” he added. “The dream version of this would be a constitutional amendment that’d support people’s fundamental rights to make personal decisions about contraception, pregnancy, marriage, and family life.”

After acknowledging that his viewers would “probably rather eat shards of glass than be told to vote one more time” — especially those who “didn’t text ‘stop 2 quit'” on those campaign texts — Oliver did exactly that.

“I cannot defend the system we currently have, but it is, unfortunately, the one we’ve got right now,” he said. “So electoral victories are going to be critical here, but they also must be followed by concrete actions by those that we elect. Because Republicans, if nothing else, just grimly demonstrated what committed action can actually achieve.”

Oliver went on to highlight that Roe’s undoing does not have to be permanent, as anti-choice advocates ensured the decision was never truly a constitutional right.

“This week, we’ve all been reminded of what the most marginalized people in this country have known for years: that freedoms are never guaranteed — they are hard-won and they are easily lost,” Oliver concluded. “Progress requires a consistent, sustained struggle, a willingness to disrupt everyday life, and actual courage from the people that we choose to lead us. In short, we all badly need to have the same anger and the same willingness for a long-haul fight as the world’s most hardcore knitter.”

Watch above, via YouTube.

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