Episode Details

Hey fam, welcome back to the Gilead Gazette, the news show for everyone whose body has been quietly reclassified as public infrastructure.

This week, Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy turn child sexual abuse into a campaign ad, abortion bans get linked to more women murdered, ICE skips prenatal care for a woman who already lost one baby, an Arizona man gets paid for his ex-wife's abortion, and both parties campaign on trans kids. Let's get into it.

Vivek Smears an Abuse Survivor, Trump Calls It Pay Dirt

Donald Trump says Vivek Ramaswamy's ad calling a child sexual abuse survivor a liar is "hitting pay dirt," as in, striking gold.

Vivek is the Republican running for Ohio governor against Democrat Amy Acton, who has talked publicly about being sexually abused by her stepfather from age nine to 12. So Vivek made an ad starring her estranged mother, the woman who stayed married to that stepfather, telling voters, "She's lied her entire life." Amy was taken out of her mother's custody, and the stepfather was indicted. Even the conservative magazine National Review says the court records back Amy up, and when National Review is fact-checking you on behalf of a Democrat, my dude, you've taken a very wrong turn.

Vivek is putting $4 million behind it, and his defense is, "We ran an ad about lying. They are lying about an ad that is about lying." That's what it sounds like when a man's brain is buffering.

Some Republicans, including Ohio's own Republican governor, said the ad went too far. JD Vance told them to "stop whining about an advertisement," which is rich coming from the guy who built a career whining about childless cat ladies.

Trump went further. He posted that the press says the ad is bad "because it's so good!" On Friday, an NBC reporter asked him if Amy's childhood abuse means anything to him. His answer: "Quiet!" and "You're a horrible little reporter, aren't you?" He says he doesn't "know anything about a stepfather," but the mother who stayed married to him? "A smart woman." His words: "Why wouldn't you listen to a mother that says that?"

Right-wing media is doing the same thing: calling a woman who reports sexual violence a liar. In Arizona, Democratic House candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia says two men attacked her at 2 a.m. while she was fixing her campaign signs, and one raped her. The sheriff's office is investigating. The Charlie Kirk Show called her a hoaxer, compared her to Jussie Smollett, the actor who faked a hate crime, and read this viewer comment on air: "If she was too stupid to go to ER and do a rape kit, she's too dumb to be in Congress."

So that's the MAGA message to survivors. If it happened to you as a kid, it's opposition research. If it happened to you last summer, it's a hoax.

Abortion Bans Arrive, So Do More Dead Women

A new peer-reviewed study in JAMA Network Open, the American Medical Association's research journal, found homicides of women and girls of reproductive age rose 7% in 2023 and 15% in 2024 in states with abortion bans. That's about 135 extra women and girls dead.

The researchers can't prove the bans caused it, but here's their thinking. Homicide is already a leading cause of death for pregnant women, usually at the hands of a partner, and abortion can be a woman's way out of an abusive relationship. Take that away, and she's tied to him. In 2023, Gabriela Gonzalez traveled from Texas to Colorado for an abortion without her partner's permission. When she got home, he killed her. Pro-life, everybody.

ICE Holds a High-Risk Pregnancy, Schedules Prenatal Care for Never

In Arizona, ICE is holding 24-year-old Maria Alejandra Valero Brinez, five months into a high-risk pregnancy. She already lost one baby to a stillbirth, and she's having the same complications again. Since August, she's had no regular prenatal care, just ER trips for abnormal bleeding. Apparently ICE's idea of prenatal care