This afternoon, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) will take the lead pushing Rep. Trent Franks' (R-Ariz.) anti-abortion legislation on the House floor -- by some measures the most sweeping restrictions on reproductive rights to reach the floor of Congress in a decade. She stopped by MSNBC this morning for a lively interview with Craig Melvin (thanks to R.S. for the tip).
For those who can't watch clips online, Melvin asked Blackburn whether she agrees with Franks about the rarity of pregnancies resulting from rape. "Well I think, that, what, you know, is that Representative Franks has apologized for his comments," she replied.
That happens to be the exact opposite of the truth -- Franks didn't apologize; he started fundraising off the comments last week.
Blackburn went on to defend the reporting requirements in the legislation, arguing, "[T]he hope is that that will help with getting some of the perpetrators out of the population that are committing these crimes against women and against minor females. We certainly would hope that we could rid our society of these perpetrators."
In other words, the Tennessee Republican thinks her bill will reduce rapes. When Melvin asked, "How do you fight rapists with an abortion bill?" Blackburn changed the subject.
She went on to say, three times, "Science is on our side on this." The American Medical Association disagrees. Blackburn added that "80 percent" of American women support her bill, but there is no poll that supports this argument.
And when Melvin asked whether the House's time might be better spent working on legislation that might actually become law, Blackburn created an imaginary political landscape, arguing, "This is something that American people have said, 'You need to do something about this.'"
The interview offered a fascinating peek into an alternate universe that doesn't resemble our own.