Live from Music Row, Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Aaron Gulbransen to discuss the weaponization of government and the left-wing response to the overturning of Roe v Wade using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
Leahy: We are joined in studio by the official guest host of The Tennessee Star Report, previously our lead political reporter. But he was stolen away in the dead of night by the Faith and Freedom Coalition. He’s now the State Director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, Mr. Aaron Gulbransen. Good morning, Aaron. How are you doing?
Gulbransen: Good morning. I’m doing wonderful.
Leahy: By the way, at 7:15 today, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a conservative legal rock star, if there ever was such a thing, will be here with us. Yes, I think there are conservative legal rock stars. I mean, obviously, the left has Mark Elias. We need conservative rock stars on our side in the legal arena.
Gulbransen: I have to say about AG Skrmetti; he took office on September 1st. There’s no surprise to anybody that I am a huge fan of our AG. We can’t really call him new because he’s been there for three months, but it feels like he’s accomplished about two years’ worth of stuff.
Leahy: I think he’s probably accomplished more in three months than the previous attorney general did in eight years. But, hey, that’s just me talking.
Gulbransen: Yes, he’s very active, AG. I think the last thing I saw was he may correct me when he comes on, but I believe there were additions to the opioid settlement that he’s leading with Walgreens and CVS, and I believe it’s now like $50 billion or something like that. He is accomplishing amazing things, given that that office is actually kind of underfunded at this point, too.
Leahy: Yeah, exactly. And frankly, one of the agenda items I think the Tennessee General Assembly ought to undertake is providing more funding for the attorney general’s office so they can engage in further pushbacks against the usurpations of the federal government and the deep state, because there are many, in fact, just as it turns out, Aaron, I happen to have one of those usurpations right in front of me.
It’s a headline of a story published yesterday at The Daily Signal. I don’t think it will surprise you when I tell you what the headline is. Department of Justice Official Admits Targeting Pro-Lifers in Response to Overturn of Roe.
Obviously not the appropriate thing for the Department of Justice to do, but under the Biden maladministration, the Justice Department, the CIA, the FBI, the entire national security apparatus, and the Department of Homeland Security have all been weaponized to go after their political enemy.
Here’s the story. The Justice Department has been targeting pro-life activists through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act as a response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, according to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. Gupta delivered remarks at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Divisions’ 65th anniversary earlier this month.
The associate attorney general described the overturn of Roe v. Wade as, “A devastating blow to women throughout the country that took away, ‘the constitutional right’ to abortion and increased the urgency of the Department of Justice’s work, including the enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to ensure continued lawful access to reproductive services.” I thought the supreme court’s ruling became the law of the land. Apparently not under this department of justice.
Gulbransen: It depends if the Department of Justice or the Biden administration or as you like to say the Biden maladministration, they recognize Supreme Court decisions in both rhetorics indeed, as long as they agree with them and they condemn them and try to pretend they don’t exist and they don’t agree with them.
I do want to point out, in my opinion, there was never a right to abortion in the constitution.  There was a wrongly decided opinion. The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and sent it back to the states. As an interesting aside, a friend of mine participated in a women’s political discussion in D.C., I don’t want to get her in trouble, but she was the only conservative woman on this particular panel, and one of the panelists was either the head of NARAL or the head of fundraising for NARAL.
Leahy: Tell people what NARAL is.
Gulbransen: The national abortion rights something or other, I don’t know, for so many years. Basically, it’s the most pro-abortion group in the country. They exist to get radical pro-abortion candidates elected to public office and, therefore, unlimited abortion up to and pretty much including birth.
They were probably a fan of former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s comments on keeping the child comfortable after it’s been born. And, you know, anyway but they’re talking about what their messaging is going to be over the next several years. And they used it a bit, actually a lot in the 2022 midterms. And the term that they are going to be using as they lobby the states in referendums and state legislators is ‘reproductive freedom.’ That’s interesting. So you’re going to be seeing that pop-up.
Leahy: All the left is about terminology, right? That’s the latest example of it. It’s interesting, though, a couple of points on this and we’re kind of reiterating this, but when Roe v. Wade was decided, I think, what, back in 1973, I think it was, it was a political decision, not a judicial decision. And then this Department of Justice associate attorney general referenced a legend, ‘constitutional right to abortion.’
Well, no, it’s not in the constitution at all. It was created out of thin air by the most politicized, least distinguished Supreme Court justice in modern history, Harry Blackman, who was a political hack way back when he looked in the 14th Amendment and sort of invented this constitutional right. It’s not there at all.
Gulbransen: No, it’s absolutely not.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Background Photo “Pro-Life Sign” by James McNellis. CC BY 2.0.
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