Abortion, Guns, Trump, and the New Era of Shout-Down Politics
Plus: The editors respond to a listener question concerning corporate personhood.

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman question new opposing decisions from federal judges regarding the abortion pill mifepristone and take up the recent expulsion of two Democrats from the Tennessee state Legislature over their roles in a gun control protest.
2:13: New rulings on abortion pill mifepristone
22:07: Tennessee House expels two Democratic lawmakers
35:03: Weekly Listener Question
45:41: Lightning Round: The Trump indictment, continued
52:40: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Dueling Decisions Leave Abortion Pill's Fate Uncertain," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"The Abortion Debate Is Messy. Two Lawsuits Against the FDA May Make It Worse." by J.D. Tuccille
"What 'Freedom' Means to Ron DeSantis," by Eric Boehm
"Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Equality," by Eugene Volokh
"Idaho Takes Aim at Interstate Travel for Abortion. Health Care Providers Are Suing." by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"Blue-State AGs Have A Mifepristone Lawsuit of Their Own," by Jonathan H. Adler
"In Defense of Roe," by Nick Gillespie and Regan Taylor
"Get Ready for the Post-Roe Sex Police!" by Nick Gillespie
"Do 'More Guns Lead To More Deaths'? by Nick Gillespie
"How To Create a Gun-Free America in 5 Easy Steps," Austin Bragg
"3 Reasons Not To Sweat The Citizens United Ruling," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie
"The Radical Freedom of Dungeons and Dragons," by C.J. Ciaramella
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
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Audio production by Ian Keyser;
assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
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The second amendment should guarantee arepas not guns.
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Being incorporeal & legally immortal, corporations clearly are as gods, so we should get used to them.
Corporate officers. not so much.
“Idaho Takes Aim at Interstate Travel for Abortion. Health Care Providers Are Suing.”
Misleading headline- The Idaho law only restricts non-custodial adults from transporting minors across state lines for abortions.
I fail to see how this violates the NAP.
Don’t say ‘kill the baby’ bill.
Teachers and groomers are the real parents.
Why the redundancy?
Not all groomers are teachers?
True.
Some of them do podcasts for Reason
^ this.
Jeff isn’t a teacher. Pretty sure he is a stay in basement welfare fat fuck.
According to the Dept. of Ed, public school teachers sexually abuse children at a scale more than 100 times greater than Catholic priests.
AND
The famous NEWSWEEK article
Priests Commit No More Abuse Than Other Males
https://www.newsweek.com/priests-commit-no-more-abuse-other-males-70625
A parent making any decision for a child old enough to know what a decision is and make one is already technically a departure from the nice, tidy theory of the NAP. It is one person treating the other person as property. And it is usually a sensible, practical departure from the NAP framework.
Anyway, as I’ve argued before, there are three generations involved in this scenario. And it is not clear at all why the pregnant teenage girl’s opinion on whether she wants to become a mother counts for less than the potential grandparents. She may be a minor but she is thrust into one of the most adult decision-making scenarios possible. SHE is the one who is going to be the baby’s parent, not the potential grandparents.
It all makes sense if you look at the situation from the point of view of the paleo conservative – liberty is a privilege to be bestowed upon the morally worthy.
The pregnant teenager is a slut, therefore immoral, and therefore loses her claim to liberty. It is now up to the parents to decide what is now best for the unborn child. And if the parents won’t do it, then the duty falls to the Moralizing Nanny State to do it for them. That’s their ultimate job – to keep the nation a moral and wholesome place.
As I mentioned elsewhere, a few days ago a conservative commenter here literally used the word, slut, in a debate about this topic.
Did you even survive? How did you know they were conservative? Blood work?
Reminder, jeff and Mike can use any labels they want to disparage a view, but don’t you dare point out either of them are obvious leftists.
When does a non-familial adult get to drive a minor across state lines without permission become kidnapping? Remove your sacred cow “abortion” from the equation.
One glaring example: Can a non-familial adult drive a minor to Washington to buy weed?
Explain to all of us why, or why not.
I explained why I think the pregnant teenager should have more say in her own abortion decision than her parents: she will be the child’s mother while they will merely be the child’s grandparents.
It should not be considered kidnapping in the case where the pregnant young woman has decided to get an abortion and they are trying to prevent her from doing so. Ultimately, she should not have to get their permisssion.
Repeat:Remove your sacred cow “abortion” from the equation.
Can a non-familial adult drive a minor to Washington to buy weed?
Explain to all of us why, or why not.
I explained precisely why I consider abortion an exceptional case.
Do you ever post for the woman who has to deal with ‘kill all the babies’ fanatics like you and WANTS the baby ???
Feminist Erika Bachiochi says guys like you are haters of women at the core. If you cared about women you wouldn’t always gravitate to the ” I want to get rid of my baby” women.
Oh, Mike, get a grip.
LOGICALLY,” a child old enough to know what a decision is and make one” is not decided by the child
“Dad, I want to decide how much dessert I get. I am old enough to make that decision — so pass me a few more slices.”
Says a clueless MALE 🙂
You count the baby for nothing so why is your opinion (you are neither mother, female, parent or grandparent) count for shit !!!
Are arepas covered by Article 1 of the Constitution along with habeus corpus ?
PROBLEM ——- > Hasta la vista US Constitution (definition of the USA).
Hello, [WE] mobster RULES democracy.
This isn’t the USA anymore. It’s a rogue Nazi-Empire running this nation. And the stupid in politics revolves entirely around that right there.
>>Post-Roe Sex Police!
kidnapping crimes you guys think aren’t kidnapping likely don’t require separate police
Yeah because two 17-year olds driving out of town without mamma’s permission MUST be kidnapping to everyone.. /s
UR so FOS.
questionable whether either minor is permitted across state lines w/o parental consent but I don’t practice criminal or family law
Let me help you out. No, there isn’t any law in Idaho that says a minor has to have their parent’s approval to exit the state line.
and the New Era of Shout-Down Politics
NEW??????
They were perfectly happy with the old one where only leftists attacked and conservatives buckled.
New Era of Shout-Down Politics
Except it is not new. Biden is so seasoned in the practice of shutting down politics, making Trump look like a TV producer, that not even Reason is aware or curious as journalists, of his nefarious going ons.
Biden lied. Merrick Garland lied. National Archives lied. Yet Reason et al never covered it nor pursued it with an ounce of inquisitiveness
President Joe Biden’s administration was involved in the raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence through a “special access request,” per documents obtained from the National Archives by America First Legal.
https://aflegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023.04.10-AFL-NARA-OIG-FOIA-re-FBI-MAL-Docs.pdf
This Freedom of Information Request is based on records released by the National Archives and Records Administration on March 31, 2023.1 These emails and text messages suggest that the Archives may have misled Congress regarding the nature and extent both of its communications and coordination with Biden Administration political officials and of the Biden White House’s role in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s residence on August 8, 2022.
What? No!
DON’T TALK ABOUT DESANTIS!
Talk more about the other 49 governors also actively working to suppress freedom?
Shush your mouth. Trump is literally worse than Hitler, and DeathSantis is literally worse than Trump.
If we’re gonna talk about any other governor, it’s going to be in the form of a handjob for Jared Polis!
TOO LOCAL!
If you’re going to mock the Reason staff (or whomever you are mocking), you should get it right: Trump is almost universally regarded as worse than DeSantis, by pretty much everyone except his loyal MAGA base.
Sorry, Mike, you should have at least manufactured a fake citation.
From everything I see, it is the opposite.
So many ideas!
According to Sarcasmic, this podcast doesn’t exist.
Hey, can you listen to a 60 minute podcast in 15 minutes like he can? You owe him an apology.
Reason’s own Robby Soave.
Shrike hardest hit.
[The American People] trusted the U.S. intelligence community, they trusted MSNBC hosts —which is maybe a distinction not worth making anymore…
That amazing hair.
Anyway, you’d think a libertarian magazine would be all over this.
Kamal Harris makes surprise trip to Nashville to focus on the important issues.
22:07: Tennessee House expels two Democratic lawmakers
I present into evidence:
Expulsion seems a bit harsh for the three morons from Tennessee, but I don’t know what you expect when you bring a bullhorn onto the chamber floors and interrupt proceedings like a spoiled child who isn’t getting their way.
A beating?
Yet , if DesigNate ran a company and someone did the same, he would have a response for sure, and not expect an outsider to put it in the dock.
BOAF SIDEZ!
Look at the little pro-insurrectionist over here.
Jeff shit bricks because Trump told people to “Go home with love and peace, remember this day forever“ on January 6. Imagine what he would do if Trump had joined the protesters in the Rotunda.
*whoosh*
No… one side. You’re the undisputed queen of missing the point.
A Real Murican speaks out against the travesty of Bud Light’s new spokesperson.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnists/2023/04/10/bud-light-dylan-mulvaney-partnership-beer-reaction/11623439002/
Apparently Rex Huppke thinks people are buying woke corporate products just to destroy them, or at least that’s the narrative he’s trying to push.
Jeff, of course, thinks this is brilliant.
An annoying immature screed about annoying immature screeds, how clever.
So, there is a fire and instead of calling the firemen, you yell “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”
Biden has tens of millions of gun records, runs a prostitution ring, sells influence to China and you yell ‘Tik Tok”