Lawrence O’Donnell Tells His Mom’s Story Amid Abortion Rights Rollback

MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell’s monologue turned personal Tuesday when he emotionally described a procedure his mother once needed—one which Georgia’s Republican lawmakers recently banned.

O’Donnell told his story following a ProPublica report this week that the legislation enacted in the southern state has led to the deaths of at least two women.

“ProPublica is now reporting about the death of a 28-year-old woman in Georgia who died because of what George W. Bush and Donald Trump did to her when they appointed those Supreme Court justices,” O’Donnell said, before reading from the story, which notes that the woman needed a procedure called a dilation and curettage (D&C), which removes tissue from the inside of the uterus.

Georgia’s Republican legislators decided that performing the routine procedure should be a felony.

The anchor of The Last Word, who called out Trump for “pretending that he has no blood on his hands,” then informed his viewers that his mother required that same procedure when he was six years old.

“My mother had given birth to five healthy children, but she kept going. She was trying, trying to have a sister for her only daughter. Trying for one more. And she suffered a miscarriage, and she routinely had a D&C at a local hospital in Boston years before abortion was legal because a D&C has absolutely nothing to do with abortion,” O’Donnell said.

“None of the Catholic nuns teaching me at my elementary school then thought my mother should not have that procedure. Our beloved Monsignor Brandley knew that when mothers in St. Brendan’s Parish had miscarriages, doctors should give them whatever treatment they needed,” O’Donnell explained.

“Anti-abortion, Catholic doctors performed the procedure routinely. There wasn’t a single Irish Catholic politician in Boston—including the mayor and district attorney—who ever tried to interfere with that medical procedure,” he went on. “Their sisters were having that procedure, their daughters were having that procedure routinely in antiabortion Boston because it has nothing to do with abortion. Nothing.”

O’Donnell then imagined a scenario in which what is playing out right now had happened to his mother back then.

“If a politician interfered with that procedure and killed—,” O’Donnell began, catching his breath. “—Killed my mother when I was six years old, who is going to tell that boy? Who is going to tell that six-year-old how his mother died and who is really responsible?”

To do what Republicans in Georgia have done is “sheer Madness, criminal Madness. Murderous Madness,” he stated.

O’Donnell compared their actions to outlawing IVF (in vitro fertilization), noting that Republican senators on Tuesday blocked legislation establishing a national right to IVF. Only two of the chamber’s 50 Republicans joined Democrats in favor of the bill.

Trump recently declared the Republican Party to be a “leader on IVF.” But his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, chose to campaign rather than cast a vote.