Four-year-old comments made by Hollywood star Anne Hathaway have ignited belated MAGA outrage.
Hathaway, who is currently pregnant with her third child, shared her thoughts on abortion when she appeared on The View in November 2022.
During the segment, co-host Joy Behar read out an Instagram post Hathaway made in July that year to mark the 16th anniversary of her film The Devil Wears Prada. The actress noted in the social media post that the young females in the movie were able to build their lives and careers “in a country that honored their right to have choice over their own reproductive health.” She added, “See you in the fight.”
The post came just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade , ending nearly 50 years of federal constitutional protection for abortion rights, leaving individual states free to restrict or ban the procedure.
In May of this year, 20 states now ban or severely restrict access to abortions, according to The New York Times.
On The View, Hathaway said that she had been thinking about the “implications” of “living in a country that puts us in this position again.”
Adding that it was “not a moral conversation about rights,” but a “practical conversation about women’s rights,” the actress added, “My own personal experience with abortion, and I don’t think we talk about this enough, abortion can be another word for mercy. We don’t know.”
Noting that “no two pregnancies are alike,” she asked “how can we have a law, how can we have a point of view on this that says we must treat everything the same? When you allow for choice, you allow for flexibility, which is what we need in order to be human.”
A truncated and out-of-context 38-second clip of Hathaway’s 2022 comments on The View was shared on Monday by LifeNews.com, which says it is a “pro-life news outlet fighting abortion.”
The clip soon spread through MAGA, shared by Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who posted, “This is truly sick,” to her 5.3 million followers.
Republican Senator Mike Lee posted, “Anne Hathaway: `Abortion can be another word for mercy.’ Babies: `The word `mercy’ doesn’t mean what you think it means’.”
Former swimmer turned conservative commentator Riley Gaines posted, “Anne Hathaway thinks it can be merciful to end human life deemed inconvenient. And all the women of The View smile and not along in agreement.”
American conservative talk radio host Dana Loesch referenced a new Hathaway movie not due for release until 2028, stating “This doesn’t bode well for when Days of Thunder promo starts,” while the LibsofTikTok account simply called Hathaway “DEMONIC.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Hathaway’s reps for comment.
Hathaway has taken a pummeling from conservatives. Just days ago, she was criticized for her role in the sequel to Days of Thunder by MAGA actor Randy Quaid, who starred in the 1990 original.
Then, last month, furious Republicans seized on another vintage Hathaway video, already angry at her role in the MAGA-baiting box office hit The Odyssey.
Fox News host Tomi Lahren weighed in on the star receiving the 2018 National Ally for Equality Award from the LGBTQ organization the Human Rights Campaign.
As part of her 12-minute impassioned speech, Hathaway discussed culture war issues that were becoming politicized during Trump’s first term as president.
Referencing a “damaging and widely accepted myth, in her speech, she said, “That myth is that gayness orbits around straightness, transgender orbits around cisgender, and that all races orbit around whiteness,” she said.
Hathaway said the myth was “dangerous,” as it prioritizes a “certain kind of skin color” and not anything deemed to be “other.”
“And it is a myth that keeps money and power in the hands of the few, instead of being invested in the lives of the free,” she said to a rapturous audience.
Lahren lashed out, stating on X, “A reminder that her standing up there on her perch in her fancy gown and updo delivering this self-righteous lecture cost her absolutely zero. She makes no sacrifice. She loses nothing. Yet, she is hailed as brave and bold. For what? Words.”
