So Fun To Watch Elie Mystal Flatten Right-Wing CSpan Callers

By Frances Langum — October 25, 2021

Watching Elie Mystal knock down right-wing CSpan Callers is such a hoot. We clipped one above, but really, you should go watch the whole half-hour online for a dose of reality-based entertainment.

The call above is from a woman who, sadly, wants the US legal system to be the Ten Commandments. She said she had an abortion in her 20's and prays for forgiveness from the Lord every day for what she did. (She makes no comment about the man who got her pregnant against her will.)

Caller says she has "pencil and paper in hand right now. Tell me, where in the Constitution or in the papers, that gives a woman the right to kill an unborn human being. I will write it down and look it up."

Alrighty then!

She's not going to be happy with Elie's answer, because clearly she wants to do a Google search for where Alexander Hamilton put a seal of approval on fetal viability. The law doesn't work that way, caller.

Elie Mystal knows this, and took the time to mention that the 4th, 14th, and 9th Amendments apply to a woman's right to decide if she wishes to remain pregnant. And, if you don't like all those then the 13th. Amendment against involuntary labor forced by the government (anti-slavery) applies also.

Host Greta Brawner asks for a historical clarification on which argument was used to decide Roe V. Wade in 1973. This gave Mystal an excuse to tell Greta that the same arguments against Roe apply to BIRTH CONTROL.

ELIE MYSTAL: The justices pointed to the right to privacy. They said the right to privacy, which is first articulated in the right to birth control. Never forget the attack on abortion rights and attack on birth control rights are the same attack. They are coming after the same constitutional underpinning. The right to privacy was first articulated in Connecticut. That is the contraception case. They said that because of all these other rights, it wouldn't make sense without a right to privacy, there must be a right to privacy in the Constitution. There is a right to privacy in the Constitution -- this is important -- then the state still has a legitimate interest in the health and safety of the fetus, but that legitimate interest cannot attach until the fetus is viable. Until we hit 24 weeks. People say "abortion on demand." There is no "abortion on demand." That is not the legal landscape we all deal with. What we have is before viability, we treat the woman as a full person.

Again, stick around and watch the whole segment on CSpan, for Elie Mystal to tell anti-abortion caller "Paul" to, you know, NOT HAVE AN ABORTION. And the listener who wants God to run America but doesn't want healthcare to come out of his wallet. Elie gives him a nice lecture on Christian charity.

CSPAN Caller: "I believe that the spirit transcends the flesh."
Me: "Cool story bro. ...But that's not a legal argument."

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) October 25, 2021

We can't wait for Elie Mystal's book "Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution" to come out in January.

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