Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
By now, you know that Donald Trump told Chris Matthews yesterday that he believes abortion should be banned and that, if that were to happen, women who had abortions deserved “some form of punishment.” He didn’t specify what that punishment would be. And he later backtracked, saying it’s the doctors in that situation who should be punished, not the women. Both comments were disturbing. But if you’re looking for a positive spin on the issue, maybe it’s that Trump has never given much thought to this issue, and his comments were based less on conviction and more on what he thought conservatives wanted to hear. Maybe he didn’t really mean what he said. That wasn’t the only thing that disturbed me about his response, though. What he said afterwards was arguably worse. Read more