In an absurd and tone-deaf opinion piece, MSNBC columnist Dean Obeidallah argues that Republicans must be insincere in condemning the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan because they themselves oppose “women’s rights.”
“I have to wonder where these voices were when extremists, based on a narrow reading of their religion’s beliefs, enacted a law that forces a woman who was raped to carry the fetus of the rapist to term?” Obeidallah writes, referring to GOP lawmakers supporting a recent pro-life law in Arkansas that offered very limited exceptions to its prohibitions on abortion.
He goes on to argue that, while “nobody is saying the GOP and the Taliban are equally bad,” pro-life Republicans can’t sincerely oppose the Taliban’s egregious violations of women’s rights because GOP lawmakers themselves have voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act and joined in filing a brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
It’s one thing to support legal abortion, as Obeidallah does, but it’s another entirely to compare the Taliban’s misogynistic policies — such as, for instance, forbidding women to show any skin or attend school or drive a car — to the eminently reasonable pro-life view that a woman’s right to bodily autonomy does not extend so far that she can end the life of the unborn child in her womb.
By insinuating that the two are even remotely comparable, Obeidallah has exposed a passion for legal abortion so vigorous that he has abandoned all good sense and charity.