Freedom in America? It looks like the extremist Republican MAGA Party has a plan to end that.  

Below is the highlights of the Rachel Maddow Show from Monday night. The first highlight is a short synopsis of how the law is closing in on Donald Trump. 

The second segment is the segment I am going to discuss briefly today.This segment talks about how Attorneys General in many of the deep red MAGA states are hatching a plot to follow women who may be going out of state, to get their (the woman’s) medical records in case they may be leaving the state to get an abortion. The reason this really caught my eye Monday is that because of Iowa’s recent enactment of abortion laws, there seems to be little doubt that Iowa will join in the group that will be hunting women.

The segment starts at 3:30 and ends at 15:20. The following segment on MAGA plans to end democracy in the US does dovetail nicely into the segment on tracking women:

Note that Rachel does not know if MAGA state AGs have started the tracking of pregnant citizens from their states. This is an idea that started kicking around in Idaho last winter. When Idaho passed a truly draconian anti-abortion aw it was a given that Idaho women had a female reproductive health care friendly state next door in Washington.

In particular MAGA Idaho legislators knew that the college town of Moscow, Idaho was right on Washington’s border and about a stones throw from the college town of Pullman, Washington. So for female students at the U of Idaho it is just a quick trip to Pullman for what they needed. Idaho legislators wanted to put a stop to that right away.

As far as I know, Idaho’s legislators have not been able to stop the flow to Washington for female reproductive health care. The new laws have driven practicing obstetricians out of the state since doctors fear getting tangled in legal messes over abortions.  

In the past year as the MAGA legislatures have passed on draconian anti-abortion bill after another, the MAGA leaders seem to be mad that they might not be able to punish women who defy them and seek health care in a woman friendly state. Thus the need for some kind of mechanism to track the women down and hunt them in order to charge them for violating anti-abortion laws even if the abortion took place in a state where the procedure is legal.

If this scenario doesn’t just scare the crap out of you, you have no heart. This scenario sounds like it was taken from the pages of some futuristic dark science fiction book like “A Handmaid’s Tale.” (Note – I have not read “A Handmaid’s Tale” but dystopian futures are a common theme in books). 

Also if this sound a lot like a law that led directly to the Civil War – The Fugitive Slave Act –  it certainly shares some common themes. I fully expect MAGA Republicans to try to float laws like this if they ever attain full control of the US government.

You have to wonder how it could be legal for one state to demand your private medical records and get them from another state. When you have a SCOTUS so corrupt and so political it is not hard to imagine at all. A phony case, a 6 to 3 decision and Bingo! we have a fugitive woman law!

This is where Rachel’s last segment on this video comes in. She describes work that is going on by the Heritage Foundation to implement what was once a far right fringe concept of the Unitary Executive. Rachel discusses the concepts should Trump be elected, but the Heritage Foundation is working to make it a centerpiece of the next Republican presidency.

With the Unitary Executive concept powers that now belong to congress, the courts or the states will be moved into the executive branch thus removing all checks and balances, In short, the executive becomes a dictator. This will be the end of democracy in the US. We can see prototypes of this happening in Hungary with Viktor Orban and in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu.

 As a dictator, any Republican president can simply implement policies like a Fugitive Woman policy. 

Now to bring it back to Iowa. As Rachel noted there are 19 states who signed onto a letter to the Biden Administration to be able to get private medical records of women from other states. Iowa did not sign on was because at that time Iowa did not have a draconian law to punish women. They do now and I am sure that you can expect as soon as Iowa’s Supreme Court says it is legal we will join in on the woman hunting to punish them for abortions.

Be prepared.

Also understand that if you vote for Republicans next year, this is what you will be voting for. If you want freedom you damn well better vote for it!

Note from Thursday’s High Five: (From Progress Iowa)

ABORTION BAN WOULD FORCE OBGYN DOCS OUT: The accreditation agency for OBGYN residents would require Iowa residents to “travel to another state where it is legal to complete their training” if the abortion ban takes effect permanently. This is sure to discourage medical students from studying and practicing in Iowa, making our OBGYN shortage even worse. Especially in rural Iowa.