Idaho AG: Justice Sotomayor is "Shameful"
Idaho AG: Justice Sotomayor is "Shameful"
Raúl Labrador whined that the (female) justices were "relentless"
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador is on a roll. First he falsely accused doctors of lying about needing to airlift patients out of the state for abortion care. Now, the Republican AG is complaining that the Supreme Court justices were “relentless” during oral arguments on the EMTALA, calling Justice Sonia Sotomayor “shameful.”
During an appearance on KBOI’s “Nate Shelman Podcast,” Labrador first repeated his claim that Idaho doctors and hospitals were lying about transferring patients to other states using air ambulances.
“Last week, they came out with this new theme that all these women had to be flown out of Idaho…But the reality is that they haven’t said that under oath. They just did that in a press release, and of course every newspaper, every person in Idaho, claims that it is a fact, when they haven’t said that under oath.”
I guess the OBGYNs upending their lives to leave Idaho are just trying to keep up with the “new theme.” This comment mirrors what Labrador said after the Supreme Court arguments—that doctors were simply trying to make a “political statement.” In the KBOI interview, Labrador insisted that the Idaho law was clear, that women could get life-saving treatment if they needed it, and that these stories were coming from medical associations that want the state to change it’s law. “They’re trying to create discord and misinformation,” he said.
The truth? Doctors at St. Luke's Health System told NPR yesterday that after the state Supreme Court allowed a ban on emergency abortions to stand, the hospital had to airlift six patients to neighboring states over the next three months. Dr. Jim Souza, chief physician at St. Luke’s, said that given those numbers, “we can anticipate up to 20 patients needing out of state care this year alone.”
“Putting somebody in a whirlybird and flying them to another state creates an obvious delay in care. If she is in transit and begins hemorrhaging very quickly, the resources you have are no longer the resources of a tertiary care center. They're the resources of a helicopter."
And in the Idaho Statesman, OBGYN Dr. Becky Uranga relayed the story of a woman with a donor kidney, who had spent years on dialysis, who couldn’t legally get an abortion even though one of her twin fetuses had died. “This is not theoretical, this is actually happening,” Dr. Uranga said.
Labrador didn’t stop with lies about doctors and hospitals, though. In a telling portion of the interview, he complained about tough questions from the liberal (aka female) Supreme Court justices, calling them “aggressive,” and whining that state attorney Josh Turner was the target of “relentless attacks.”
The Idaho AG focused in on Justice Sotomayor in particular, saying “there were a couple of times that I did had to bite my tongue” during her questioning. “She would not allow him to answer the question…Every time he would open his mouth, he could get maybe one or two words out,” he said. Men sure do hate those mouthy women!
If you have any doubt that sexism played a role in Labrador’s frustration, consider that at this point in the interview, host Nate Shelmam imitated Justice Sotomayor’s voice, yelling, “Answer the question, yes or no!” Labrador too, imitated Justice Sotomayor using a whiny voice, saying, “Oh you want women to die,” and “That’s going to cause her death.”
“Anybody who claims that is either lying or is misinformed,” Labrador continued, “And I think that’s pretty shameful anybody who claims that.”
To recap: The Attorney General of Idaho—a state that has lost nearly 25% of its OBGYNs, three maternity wards and counting—finds it annoying and “shameful” that a female Supreme Court justice might be worried about women dying. He doesn’t like that she’s “aggressive” and “relentless” about it.
I don’t know about you, but when someone is fighting for my life and humanity, I’d like them to be as aggressive and relentless as possible. Even if it means making a sexist Republican attorney general uncomfortable.
Labrador sure sounds emotional, do you think he's on the rag? Let's speculate around the office cooler.
As weird as it sounds, I prefer this open, hostile misogyny to fake compassion.