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Joy Reid likens Texas GOP to Taliban for 'putting bounties' on women over abortion law

Joy Reid compared Texas Republicans to the Taliban for $10,000 'bounty' on women over new abortion law

Joy Reid of MSNBC compared Texas Republicans to the Taliban for passing a new anti-abortion bill that includes a $10,000 "bounty" for private people who sue anybody who violates the prohibition, news outlets reported on Monday, July 13. 

The MSNBC host has been in the news recently for her allegedly racist comments when she said "people on the right" would trade their tax cuts to openly use racial slurs. She also had strong words for Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who had constantly called her 'the race lady, while referring to him as 'Tuckums' in a segment on 'The Reid Out'. 

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On Monday, the left-leaning cable news presenter responded to a tweet by Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who blasted new Texan abortion law. The op-ed, headlined 'Republicans now stand for lawlessness and disorder,' attacked Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott for signing an abortion ban in May.

In a series of tweets, Reid added her own thoughts on the bill. "So now Texas Republicans are putting bounties on pregnant women," she tweeted on Monday. "I almost hate to ask what this benighted party will think of next." Adding to the thread, she wrote: "This is Talibanism. Are Texas conservatives going to be spying on women of childbearing age and turning them in for the bounties?"

Adding a gif showing screens from the Hulu television series 'The Handmaid's Tale', Reid wrote in another tweet: "I mean, what's next, Texas? What's next, GOP...?" The show, starring Elisabeth Moss and written by Margaret Atwood is based on a dystopian fictional world where a religious oligarchy forcibly subjugates fertile women into slavery.

Reid's response was to Rubin's tweet which added a link to her article on the Post. It read: "This is a law designed not to ‘protect life’ (a farce, given that protecting innocent life has taken a back seat when Covid-19 restrictions were at issue), but rather to create fear and uncertainty for women and health-care providers." She added: "Will miscarriages lead to a lawsuit from a nosy office worker seeking to cash in on the reward? Will abortion bounties become a weapon in divorce and custody cases? No one knows — and that is the point. The law seeks not to protect the fetus in any systematic way but rather to intimidate women, making them into cash cows for spiteful anti-choice busybodies."

'Doesn't Texas have more serious problems?'

People took to Twitter to share their views. "Cutting off ears for adulterers, let’s go full medieval," said one. "Funny how Handmaid hallucinations only happen in people who claim government must control womens' reproduction to appease the climate gods," said another. "Doesn’t TX have more serious consequential problems to deal with…like their power grid??," a third chimed in. "You’re confusing Texas with the FBI," said a fourth.

'Bounty on men for using condoms next?'

"Police state. The entire purpose of such a system is to prevent people from doing something purely out of fear. Ultimately, it reduces assembly & dissent by creating a sense of "who will rat me out and take my stuff". It is also similar to the Fugitive Slave laws," described a Twitter user. Another shared a Sherlock Holmes meme saying: "Now we have a firm grasp of the obvious." "What next, put a bounty on men for using condoms?" a third questioned.