Joy Reid Compares GOP Abortion Laws to The Handmaid’s Tale: ‘This is Pure Religious Extremism’

Alex GriffingApr 15th, 2022, 5:15 pm
 

MSNBC’s Joy Reid lambasted recent restrictions passed by Republican-dominated statehouses during the Thursday night broadcast of her show. In a tweet before her broadcast began, she compared the Republican Party to the religious extremists who control the government in the dystopian show The Handmaid’s Tale.

“This is a party of ‘Commanders,’ seeking a nation of Handmaids, Marthas, Aunties, silent wives and whores — the only categories allowed for women in Gilead,” wrote Reid on Twitter, referring to the various roles women are forced into in the show’s clearly outlined theocracy.

“This is pure religious extremism. And you, ladies, and your daughters and sisters and friends are on the menu. Wake. Up,” she concluded.

She began her thread on Twitter, writing, “Dear women: please note that the Republican (mainly) men passing and signing these abortion bans are explicitly NOT exempting rape and incest victims. Add to that the start, in TN, of the creep toward legalized “marriage” for little girls, which BTW IS rape under law & morality..”

Reid continued, adding:

Plus the conspicuous permissiveness and disinterest when it comes to rape and sexual exploitation and violation allegations made about Republican men like Trump, Gaetz, Roy Moore, Cawthorn, Greitens and others… and you really have to try hard to miss the message.

Reid included gifs showing various scenes from the show in her tweets, including one of the “bedroom ceremony” in which the handmaid is raped by the commander. In the show, Gilead, a post-United States theocracy forces fertile women to be “handmaids” to powerful families. These handmaids are in short supply and a valued commodity as some unknown environmental damage has left most people unable to have children.

During her show, Reid blasted the “Republican Party’s outright war on women” and criticized laws restricting abortions in states like Texas, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. Reid reported that Kentucky has now “succeeded in becoming the very first state since Roe v. Wade was implemented, almost half a century ago, to force all of its abortion clinics to close.”

Reid charged that these laws amount to fulfilling “one of the Christian Right’s most durable goals, toward creating an American theocracy.”

“These states’ Republican leaders don’t care about children. They care about culling far right Christian voters, to keep themselves in power. And they sure as Hell don’t care about women,” she concluded on Twitter.

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC

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Alex Griffing - Senior Editor

Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing