'This is Talibanism': US News Anchor Hits Out at Texas Republicans Over Abortion Ban

In May, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a six-week abortion ban, saying the legislation would ensure that "every unborn child with a heartbeat will be saved from the ravages of abortion".

MSNBC news anchor Joy Reid has drawn parallels between Texas Republicans and Taliban* militants as she echoed a Washington Post (WaPo) columnist's anger over a new anti-abortion law enacted in the Lone Star State.

In a Monday tweet, Reid supported Jennifer Rubin's op-ed in The Washington Post titled "Republicans now stand for lawlessness and disorder", where the columnist described the law as a document "designed not to 'protect life' […] but rather to create fear and uncertainty for women and healthcare providers".

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 19: In this screengrab, Joy Reid speaks at the 33rd Gloria Awards: A Salute to Women of Vision - VIRTUAL EVENT on May 19, 2021 in New York City

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“Will miscarriages lead to a lawsuit from a nosy office worker seeking to cash in on the reward? Will abortion bounties become a weapon in divorce and custody cases? No one knows — and that is the point. The law seeks not to protect the fetus in any systematic way but rather to intimidate women, making them into cash cows for spiteful anti-choice busybodies", Rubin wrote.

Reid responded to Rubin's op-ed by posting an array of tweets in which she berated Texas Republicans for "putting bounties on pregnant women".

"I almost hate to ask what this benighted party will think of next. This is Talibanism. Are Texas conservatives going to be spying on women of childbearing age and turning them in for the bounties?", the MSNBC host tweeted.

She was apparently referring to a clause in the law that stipulates offering a $10,000 "bounty" to private citizens, even those outside of Texas, who can sue private doctors or clinics for violating the legislation.

The news anchor's tweets followed Texas Governor Greg Abbott signing a six-week abortion ban in May, when he said that "our Creator endowed us with the right to life and yet millions of children" lose such a right every year because of abortion.

With the law due to come into force in September, Texas follows other Republican-run states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, which announced abortion bans earlier this year.

Right now, Texas law forbids abortions after 20 weeks, "with exceptions for a woman with a life-threatening medical condition or if the fetus has a severe abnormality", according to Fox News.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 90 percent of abortions in the country take place during the first 13 weeks of a woman's pregnancy.

*Taliban, a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries