John Legend also dismissed former President Donald Trump‘s posture toward abortion, saying that the former president “wants to claim credit” for overturning Roe while putting decisions about abortion into the hands of the states.
But conservative states such as Texas, Georgia, and Alabama are “where most Black women live…in the South,” said the singer. “So that means the majority of Black women are in regimes that would rather possibly let them die before giving them the lifesaving treatment that they need.”
On Oct. 30, Christian YouTube influencer Ruslan posted a clip of a video to his Instagram account showing part of Legend’s comments where the artist stated that Teigen “was well past 15 weeks when she had to have an abortion. She was miscarrying and bleeding out.”
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Ruslan tagged Legend and Sharpe and reacted to the clip, saying, “You know that the pro-life position is about elective abortions. Your baby was tragically dying; your wife was miscarrying. She needed a surgical procedure called a D&C to take the tragedy of a dead baby inside of her out.”
Ruslan continued by explaining that pro-abortion advocates are deliberately confusing terms to refer to medically necessary procedures as “abortions” in order to make the case that “women need this. But we all know that is not what we’re fighting against.”
John Legend, surprisingly, took the time to engage with Ruslan in the comments on the Instagram post. “The ‘pro-life’ position is that the government should be involved in the most intimate decisions any woman could make,” said Legend. “Making something illegal means the government has to enforce and adjudicate these intimate decisions and procedures. The government has the power to force someone to carry for 9 months. It has the authority to adjudicate whether or not a woman meets whatever exceptions are granted by law.”
“So, after rape or incest, rather than just having the abortion, she would also have to prove that this occurred so that she and her doctor don’t get arrested,” he continued. “If her doctor thinks she needs a procedure to save her life, they still have to feel super confident that the government will agree with their assessment that the woman is sufficiently on death’s door before they intervene to help her.”
“The government has no place in the conversation,” Legend concluded his comment. “Does this not make sense to everyone? Especially conservatives who don’t trust the government in their lives in so many other realms.”
Multiple people replied, including one person who said he was a doctor and that physicians do not withhold D&C procedures “in the case of what’s called an incompetent miscarriage, where tragically, the baby isn’t alive anymore but there are products left in the uterus.” The commenter told Legend the singer was making a straw man argument.
“No sir, the pro life position is that unborn babies should be left alone to fully develop and get a shot at life,” Ruslan replied in part. “‘Making something illegal’ is the same thing we do with murder, drunk driving and a variety of other laws that protect people and… LEGISLATE what you’re allowed to do with your own base. So yes, the government enforces all sorts of laws.”
“I said nothing about rape and incest in this video,” he added. “I’m speaking to you specifically using the tragedy of a miscarriage to argue for [abortion] on demand. And you, probably knowing that the [vast] amount of [abortions] are not for the mother’s health, rape or incest. Can we agree [abortion] as birth control is wrong. Yes or no?”
