Kelly Clarkson says she finds Arizona’s recent abortion ruling “insane,” telling Hillary Clinton that the country’s “going backwards.”
“Did you ever think in your lifetime that we would see that happen? It’s just insane to me the thinking that went on in 1864 — it’s a very different world. We know a lot more now,” the “American Idol” alum told Clinton during an appearance Monday by the former secretary of State on Clarkson’s eponymous daytime talk show.
In a ruling issued last week, Arizona’s Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that made performing abortion a felony. The legislation includes an extremely narrow exception for “when it is necessary” to save a pregnant person’s life.
Clinton, nodding in agreement with Clarkson, called the law “horrifying in every way.”
“I feared it would happen, but I hoped it wouldn’t happen. And now here we are in the the middle of this very difficult period for women in about half the states of our country who cannot get the care that they need,” Clinton said in the preview clip from “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”
“There’s a kind of cruelty to it,” Clinton told Clarkson. “No exceptions for rape, incest. There’s a cruelty toward women, toward women’s lives.”
“You don’t realize how hard it is. The fact that you would take that away from someone,” Clarkson said, describing the move as something that could “literally kill” women.
“The fact if they’re raped… by their family member. It’s just like insane to me,” the 41-year-old “Stronger” singer said.
Clarkson suggested that the Arizona ruling happened due to “voter apathy.”
“I have many different, random types of people in my life that have so many different ways of thinking about politics, faith, everything – and all of it’s fine,” Clarkson said.
But, she told Clinton, “What I’m hearing from everyone is that they’re just exhausted and they feel powerless. And even if I do vote, what does it matter?”
“It’s like, ‘What does it matter?’ Well that’s why we’re going back to 1864,” Clarkson said.
“What do we do about that?” the performer asked Clinton.
“Because it’s hard to preach at someone that you have to care about something, but at the same time, I feel like we’re gonna end up in — not to sound dramatic — but some kind of civil war on things we shouldn’t be divided on,” Clarkson exclaimed.
Clinton, a producer of the new Broadway musical, “Suffs,” said, “Whatever you care about, voting is your superpower. And it may not seem like it, but it really is.”
