The Daily Show Tweets Controversial Message After SCOTUS Ruling
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There are plenty of ways to celebrate the Supreme Court's ruling on Texas' restrictive abortion law, but some feel that this tweet from "The Daily Show" missed the mark, playing into stereotypes about why women get abortions.
"Celebrate the #SCOTUS ruling!" the tweet reads. "Go knock someone up in Texas!"
Yes, the Comedy Central show is known for its tongue-in-cheek political commentary. So why is this tweet causing such an outrage? For one, some Twitter users feel that the comment belittled the significance of a historic ruling on women's reproductive rights. The post also seems to come from a male perspective.
"The Daily Show" responded to the criticism.
"Friends, we’re certainly not promoting abortions," the show's official account tweeted. "Just excited about #SCOTUS reaffirming right to choose."
Be that as it may, the tweet sparked a conversation on social media. Because the tweet appeared to trivialize abortion and implied that men could now freely impregnate women as a benefit of increased abortion access, one Twitter user suspected that the show's predominantly male writing staff was responsible for the offensive post.
The takeaway here is pretty straightforward. The Daily Show's attempt to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling fell flat on its face and earned it the outrage of both fans and at least one of the show's previous guests, who said the tweet "was in exceptionally poor taste."
The reality is that Texas' restrictive abortion law likely didn't stop people from having sex.
Though the state's abortion rate dropped 13 percent about a year after the HB2 regulations went into effect in 2013, that didn't mean that people stopped having sex or even that they stopped having abortions, The Huffington Post reports. The dramatic increase in out-of-state abortions in states surrounding Texas suggests as much.
Check out this chart from The Dallas Morning News, which shows how the abortion rate spiked in Louisiana and Oklahoma post-HB2.
The Dallas Morning News - dallasnews.com
Critics of the tweet say that the post neglected to celebrate what the ruling really meant: a victory for women's reproductive rights that will reduce the undue stress and increased health risks that women have faced as a consequence of an unconstitutional, restrictive law.
