John Oliver came out swinging at Republicans who have been downright jubilant over the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Last Week Tonight host had a particular amount of ire for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who closed his office early on Friday and declared it “Sanctity of Life Day,” a new annual holiday that will serve as a memorial to “almost 70 million babies who have been killed in the womb.”
Oliver’s segment heaped considerable scorn on Republicans like Mike Pence and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, but the host could not get over the “gleeful” response from Paxton. “What’s made it even harder is having to watch sh*t like this,” Oliver said before teeing up a clip announcing the Texas holiday:
“Nope, fuck you” @iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight #AbortionRuling pic.twitter.com/b0xLnSyk6A
— Eazy-E (@eric_d_veal) June 27, 2022
“Nope, f*ck you,” Oliver fired back. “First, June 24 is already a holiday. It’s called Solange’s birthday, and she does not deserve this on her day. Second, nobody wants to go to a Sanctity of Life anti-choice cookout. The potato salad is going to be trash. And, finally, you don’t get a holiday celebrating loss of rights for millions of people when you already have one, and it’s called Columbus Day.”
Despite the few zingers, the Last Week Tonight host was mostly filled with justifiable anger at the state of women’s rights following the stunning reversal.
“What the Supreme Court has just done is utterly devastating,” Oliver said. “The message that the Supreme Court sends is pretty clear: We don’t care if pregnancy kills you, we don’t care if you don’t want to be pregnant, we don’t care about you at all.”