Nikki Haley Generously Declares She Wouldn’t Have Women Executed for Getting an Abortion

Something you’re probably already aware of (but we’ll mention anyway for emphasis) is that Republicans are on a quest to destroy reproductive rights in America, and have already made the country a terrifying place to be pregnant, should you need or want to get an abortion. A good indication of how outrageous the situation has gotten? That a GOP candidate for the White House felt the need to declare she doesn’t think people who undergo abortions should be subject to capital punishment.

Yes, during a CNN town hall in Iowa on Sunday, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley told the audience, “I think we can all come together and say any woman that has an abortion shouldn’t be jailed or given the death penalty. Can’t we start there?”

In fact, not everyone in Haley’s party would like to “start there,” given that a group of conservative lawmakers in her home state want to classify abortion as murder. (Women who undergo abortions in South Carolina already face prison time.) Meanwhile in Alabama, a bunch of Republican lawmakers want to change the laws so that women can be charged with murder for an abortion, potentially affecting women who miscarry as well.

And then, of course, there is Haley herself, who is hardly the friend to pregnant people she made herself out to be. For one thing, during the town hall on Sunday, she refused to rule out signing a six-week abortion ban (and absurdly suggested Joe Biden and Kamala Harris support abortion at “37 weeks, 38 weeks, 39 weeks”—an argument straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook). Oh, and last month, she lamented how hard it is to get a national abortion ban passed given the makeup of Congress.

But perhaps the wildest thing that’s come out of Haley’s mouth was her claim this past weekend that one third of teenage girls are suicidal in part because trans women are allowed to play sports.

To be clear, there is absolutely no evidence this is the case. As Tyler Black, a psychiatrist who focuses on mental health, tweeted, “If there is one thing that I can promise in this world, and stake my entire knowledge and expertise as a suicidologist on, it’s that young teenaged girls are not made more suicidal by the presence of trans people.” Meanwhile, Anne Marie Albano, founder of Columbia University’s Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders, gave Haley some homework: “If Nikki Haley cared about kids, she’d state that surveys show teens are worried about violence & hate being perpetrated against their peers, about gun violence, climate & political unrest in the US. And, she’d do something about all that & not tell lies.”