Last July, Alabama amended House Bill 494 to allow attorneys to represent the rights of the unborn child in cases where a minor was seeking an abortion. Predictably, the media certainly reacted negatively, calling it heinous, absurd [1], and insane [2].
On the Jan.15, “Daily Show,” correspondent Jessica Williams interviewed both sides – an Alabama civil rights attorney in favor of the law, Julian McPhillips, and Susan Watson, Exec. Director of the ACLU in Alabama, who is challenging the law.
After mocking the idea that a fetus could have a lawyer, Williams defended her satirical line of questioning to McPhillips:
“You have a crazy-ass job, sir. I don’t know what’s in the realm of possibility, and what’s in the realm of not possible.”
The mockery didn’t end there. Williams then brought out a naked adult male doll, with blurred-out private areas, and tried to make the case that this “220-month-gestation fetus” was also in need of a access to a fair trial. Of course, McPhillips didn’t appreciate the mockery. “With all due respect, no grown man is a fetus.” Williams feigned, “Oh, he has a heart beat! He can feel pain!” Arguments all made by pro-lifers for the passage of pro-life laws.
Of course, the standard rhetoric of those uncaring, cold-hearted pro-lifers who only care about the unborn and no one else cropped up to finish the segment. Jessica William’s sarcastically summarized, “If you can’t afford an attorney, Alabama has got your back...until the day you’re born.”
The Week and Mother Jones praised the segment [1] calling the law “absurd” and “insane [2]” while Jezebel praised the Daily Show for “stupendously pissing off” the pro-life lawyer, while also addressing the law as “heinous [3].”
— Kristine Marsh is Staff Writer for MRC Culture at the Media Research Center. Follow Kristine Marsh on Twitter. [4]