We Women Know Our Value

Especially when an abortion ban threatens to kill us

Note: If this is the second time you’re seeing this in your inbox, it’s because it first published on my Substack, The Choice Newsletter.

On March 7, Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe commented in a telling way on the five Texas women suing the state after being denied abortions that would have reduced the risks to their lives.

About 15 minutes into the program, after the standard political-stuff opening(s), Mika and co-host Joe Scarborough moved into a conversation with All In Together CEO and co-founder Lauren Leader, in Abu Dhabi for the Forbes 30/50 Summit and sitting on set with Mika and Joe:

LAUREN LEADER (to Mika and Joe): We saw just today a new lawsuit that is being filed by five women in Texas who nearly died in childbirth. Women who wanted their children but who were denied life-saving care because of the ambiguity of the Texas abortion laws, which make doctors fear to treat women when they are in near-death conditions. A number of women in those lawsuits are now unable to have children —

MIKA: Ach!

LEADER: — because of complications from the — from the, uh —

MIKA: That’s so heartbreaking.

LEADER: — the lack of abortion care that they were denied.

The “Ach” of dismay was the first such noise Mika interjected into Leader’s explanation of the case, which included the…