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The Al Franken Podcast

193: Laura Bassett of The Cut and Sarah Zhang of The Atlantic

The Al Franken Podcast

The Al Franken Podcast

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.67.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This election could all come down to abortion. Laura Bassett from The Cut and Sarah Zhang from The Atlantic have both been writing about the issue and how it's playing into this election. Sarah's recent piece in The Atlantic examined how Idaho's draconian abortion laws have set the state's healthcare back for women. Laura has been writing about the issue for years and says that it poses a serious threat to Ted Cruz's reelection campaign in Texas. 


NYC! Come see a live taping of the Al Franken Podcast. We'll be joined by Jessica Taylor, Jeremy Peters and Mark Jong-Fast with Mark Leibovich. Get your tickets today! https://www.alfranken.com/appearances


Read Laura's writing in The Cut: https://www.thecut.com/author/laura-bassett/


Subscribe to Laura's Substack called Nightcap: https://www.laura-bassett.com/


Read Sarah Zhang's incredible piece on Idaho abortion laws in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/10/abortion-ban-idaho-ob-gyn-maternity-care/679567/

Transcript

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0:00.0

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1:07.2

Hey, everybody, we got a great one today, you know, for a change, because we're talking about reproductive rights with my guest, Laura Bassett, former editor-in-chief of Jezebel,

1:13.0

who writes on national politics and reproductive rights for New York Magazine's The Cut

1:18.9

and her own substack nightcap, and Sarah Zhang, staff writer for The Atlantic, who's written

1:26.4

a fascinating and, I dare say disturbing piece

1:30.5

about the draconian abortion laws in Idaho that make it very, very difficult to be an OBGYN in

1:38.2

that state without experiencing what is called moral distress, having to make choices to forego procedures that would protect

1:47.5

the mother's ability to have babies in the future or even put the mother's life in jeopardy

1:53.3

in order to abide by Idaho state law. That's what this episode is about. This cycle, there are eight states with measures on

2:04.9

their ballots to provide access to abortions, including two battleground states, Arizona and Nevada.

2:11.8

All the battleground states are so close. Some voters will turn out in Arizona or Nevada just to vote to liberalize their

2:20.0

state's abortion laws and will also vote for Harris. It's plausible that that could make the

2:26.4

difference. I won my Senate race by 312 votes. Bush won Florida by 537 votes in 2000 out of over 5 million votes cast there.

2:40.1

So it's plausible that the abortion initiatives could make all the difference in Nevada or

...

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