CNN contributor and Donald Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes argued on Monday that pregnant women who have contracted the Zika virus should be banned from having abortions because birth defects were "nothing new."
August 8, 2016

CNN contributor and Donald Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes argued on Monday that pregnant women who have contracted the Zika virus should be banned from having abortions because birth defects were "nothing new."

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) insisted to Politico in a recent interview that abortion should be banned with no exceptions including cases where the Zika virus would cause the child to be born with severe microcephaly.

On Monday, Democratic strategist Maria Cardona told CNN's Chris Cuomo that Rubio's stance reflected the beliefs of many men in the Republican Party.

"What Republicans did was they poisoned the [Zika] bill with efforts to try to cut back funding for those [reproductive health] clinics and to cut back funding on Obamacare," Cardona explained. "They really weren't interested in fixing this issue. They were interested in playing politics and Marco Rubio's comment underscores why."

Hughes agreed that microcephaly was a "devastating disease," but added that children with birth defects were "nothing new."

"We don't have the research, we don't know what Zika is going to do," she opined. "And Sen. Rubio is doing the correct thing. One out of every 33 babies in the United States right now is born with a birth defect."

"We're going to sit there and terminate a life because you're possibly going to be born with [microcephaly]?" Hughes asked. "I think that's actually very hypocritical of the Democrat [SIC] Party."

"Abortion is definitely not the answer for a way to sit there and cure this disease."

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon