Pleasure to see you, Meteor readers,

Wow, what a week—and it’s only Tuesday. Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon, and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell all got fired. Joe Biden announced he’s running again. All in the middle of Lesbian Awareness Week, too. Pick another week to dominate the headlines, dudes! This one belongs to Hayley Kiyoko and Kate McKinnon.

As I’m sure you know, the Supreme Court last week ruled to protect access to the abortion medication mifepristone. We spoke to Robin Marty, director of operations for the West Alabama Women’s Center, for perspective on what this looks like from the South.

But first, the news.

Saluting all lesbians,

Bailey Wayne Hundl

WHAT’S GOING ON

Good riddance: FOX News has officially fired Tucker Carlson, reportedly over accusations of sexual harassment from a former employee and possibly over his prolific use of the word “cunt.” And as fun as it is to cheer for his exile from cable news (very fun! I know ‘cause I did it all day!), it’s also worth remembering the many things he wasn’t fired for:

He defended Kim Jong-Un. He called wind power a scam. He claimed white supremacy was a hoax. He said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was a sign that we should fight against immigration. He warned his viewers that BLM protestors were coming to get them. He blamed “wokeness” for the spread of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic. He spread lies about the 2020 election, leading to a $787.5 million settlement from FOX. And the list goes on; basically every horrible thing you’ve heard your racist great-uncle ranting about at Thanksgiving originated at Carlson’s desk. And the worst part of it all: People listened.

Let! Her! Speak!: Ever since Montana state. Rep. Zooey Zephyr told her Republican colleagues they had “blood on their hands” for attempting to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth, the House chair has blocked every request she’s made to speak on the floor. In protest, Zephyr’s constituents showed up to the House Monday and brought the session to a halt, calling for the chair to recognize her until they were escorted out. Police arrested seven protestors (who were released shortly after) for criminal trespass.

But Zephyr will not back down. In a rousing speech given to the press on Monday, she said, “When someone stands up and calls out their bills for the harm they cause, for the deaths they cause, they want silence. And we will not be complicit in our eradication.”

  AND:

• If you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the Bud Light controversy, let me catch you up: The company sent one (only one!) customized can of beer to trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. As a result, right-wingers lost their ever-loving shit. Sarah Huckabee Sanders made “Real Woman” koozies! Kid Rock shot up cases of beer! Alas, it looks like those extremists’ complaints were heard: Two marketing executives who oversaw the collaboration were reportedly put on involuntary leaves of absence.

• Harry Belafonte, the barrier-breaking singer, actor, and advocate for Black rights and Black culture, died Tuesday at 96 years old. An honorary advisor to the first Women’s March in 2017, he said at the time that “to be of mind and capacity to be able to still contribute to helping our country become a better place is a joyous task.”

• And after “years of disappointment, ugly crying and carrying around a deep sense of shame” going through multiple rounds of IVF, NBC correspondent Yamiche Alcindor is pregnant! (You can read more about her journey with IVF here.)

THE VIEW FROM ALABAMA

“Your worst case scenario is something we would kill for”

Reproduction rights advocate Robin Marty on what’s really happening in states with abortion bans

BY MEGAN CARPENTIER

PHOTO BY CHARITY RACHELLE

In the wake of Friday’s Supreme Court decision to block a Texas’ judge ruling that would have overturned the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, many reproductive justice activists rejoiced. But Robin Marty, the director of operations for the West Alabama Women’s Center and the author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America, tells The Meteor, “I did not give a crap either way.”

That’s because where she lives, access to medical abortions is already illegal.

Marty spoke to The Meteor after the decision about what the case meant to patients in states like hers—and what we all can do to help.

Megan Carpentier: As someone working in reproductive healthcare in a state that recently made abortion illegal, why did you find the Friday’s decision anticlimactic?

Robin Marty: I did not give a crap either way because it feels like this entire lawsuit exists solely for two reasons: It exists so that the anti-abortion movement feels like they’re doing something. They needed another fight to keep pressure on politicians, to keep activists engaged, and to keep raising money.

But it also exists because it could divide our movement. Until the point at which this decision happened, blue states were at least trying to provide some sort of assistance to states like mine. After the decision, they all got distracted and began thinking: How do we maintain our own status quo? and began spending all their money buying as much medicine as they can.

They are so busy trying to make sure that abortion remains exactly as it is in blue states, and the red states are left to flounder.

What do you think the end game is for anti-abortion activists?

We know that the goal is to end up with a complete federal abortion ban. They believe that, somehow, they are going to be able to create a Christian theocracy. I don’t see how that’s ever truly going to exist—but also, I did not imagine democracy falling apart as quickly as it has over the last four years. And, being in Alabama, I can see what it will look like if we end up in a place where we no longer have a functioning federal government that ties all these states together.

Honestly, Alabama opted out of the federal government years ago. They opted out of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. They opted out of using federal COVID funding on actual healthcare; instead, they chose to build a prison for a billion dollars. And after abortion was made illegal and the federal government tried to say, “The veterans’ hospitals are federally-funded sites, so we can have this tiny little bit of abortion available there, for people who are on veterans insurance and either have had pregnancies as a result of sexual assault or are having health complications.” Our attorney general literally said, “No, you can’t do that. If a doctor does that, I’m going to arrest him and throw him in jail for 99 years.”

And then the federal government just kind of said, “Oh, I guess you’re right.”

[Ed note: They did offer to defend healthcare workers who get arrested.]

Alabama is not playing by the rules of the rest of the country and what worries me is that Alabama is the bellwether of what red states are going to try and get away with.

What should women or organizations be doing to help in states like Alabama?

I would love to see something really big and bold. I would love to see people actually pressing back against these laws.

I have this fantasy and, in my fantasy, I contact 50 really well-known superstars—actors, musicians, etc.—and they all come down to Alabama with one pack of medication abortion. And patients come (because patients aren’t supposed to be able to be arrested over this) and each one of these superstars—Gweneth Paltrow, everybody—says, “OK, here’s your medication.” They hand it out to the patients and they risk the 99 years in jail, because we can’t do it. People like me, people like Dr. Leah Torres, we can’t take that risk right now…but they can.

They have the resources, they have the endless amounts of money to spend on lawyers. Imagine if they just came down here and did that as an active act of defiance.

What is one thing blue state readers should take away?

There is a possibility that mifepristone could disappear but, if that does happen, it’s not that big of a deal. The sky is not falling. There are other medications that can be used. Yeah, it’s not as pleasant, but they will still have access to all misoprostol, to methotrexate, to all the other things that you can use. You’ll be able to still get your procedural abortions. Your worst case scenario is something that we would kill to be able to have access to here.

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