MSNBC host Joy Reid declared the state of Missouri a “slave state” for women on Wednesday.
Reid made the claim during a segment about the debate around contraception bills that has raged in the U.S. Senate as well as several states.
“Let me tell you how crazy it’s gotten in Missouri,” MSNBC analyst and former Missouri Democratic senator Claire McCaskill told Reid. “Abortions — all abortions are illegal. There’s no exception for rape or incest. Conception happens — life begins at conception, it’s a personhood state. Okay? So, no abortions are being performed at Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood got money as a Medicaid provider to do what – provide contraception.”
“And what did the Missouri legislature do this year, and what did the governor sign into law? Making sure [Planned Parenthood] got no money to provide contraception to women to prevent abortions. It is so nuts, Joy. It’s nuts,” she said.
“And you’ve left off, Claire, that in your state it’s illegal for a pregnant woman to get an abortion, so they’ve also gone after no-fault divorce,” Reid responded. “So if you’re pregnant, and you’re in a marriage with an abusive spouse, you can’t even get a divorce once you become pregnant. You become the property of both your husband and the state, they have joint ownership of you in the state of Missouri.”
“[Missouri] is a slave state as far as being a woman is concerned, as far as I’m concerned,” she added.
McCaskill agreed and said some legislation intended to restrict deadbeat fathers has actually ended up restricting women.
“Yeah. Back when that was put into law, it was try to hold people accountable for the babies they had fathered,” McCaskill said. “But in this day and age, everybody needs to understand that what it does, it keeps a woman in a marriage that could be abusive just because she’s pregnant, which is absolutely unacceptable.”
