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Megan McCain took to Twitter and falsely accused Gov. Grethen Whitmer of making it harder for moms to get car seats for their newborn babies and, of course, no one is supposed to call her out on it because she’s just a soon-to-be mom who wants the best for all the babies. 

"Guess it’s good I don’t live in Michigan — otherwise how would I transport my child home from the hospital @GovWhitmer? “ tweeted the daytime talk show star, who announced in late March that she and her husband are expecting their first child. “Are you going to ban cribs next? Being pregnant during this time is insanely stressful — we are all doing our best. Shame on you for doing this @GovWhitmer."

I’ll start off by admitting that I never liked Megan. But this is not a personal attack. This is about privileged people politicizing a national crisis that will disproportionately kill people I love and who look like me, under the guise of being pro-life, pro newborns.

Let’s begin with the truth about the governor’s stay-at-home order. Executive Order 2020-42 temporarily requires the suspension of activities that are not necessary to sustain or protect life — in an effort to save the lives of Detroit residents, including those risking their own health to make sure we get the supplies we need. Common sense would tell you that buying a car seat does protect life and would not be prohibited, but like my mother says, common sense is not always common. (She also told me if I didn’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all; so I’m a little lost as to what advice to rely on at this moment.)


Secondly, let's talk about how dangerous McCain’s attempt at shaming is. In Michigan, we have a growing group of people who are voicing opposition to the stay-at-home order, even though Michigan is in the top four states with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and our hospitals are stretched thin trying to meet patient needs. McCain should be supporting the governors who are showing leadership at this time. This isn't about partisan politics, it's about science.

Finally and most importantly, I’m calling so much BS on the idea that this is about anything more than McCain’s own agenda. I gave birth to my first daughter in a Detroit hospital, a place that has been struggling with high infant and maternal mortality for years. A place where babies and mamas are dying not because they couldn’t leave their houses to buy a car seat but because of systematic racism that left them with pre-existing conditions and trapped in an inherently racist health care system that mistreats people of color — especially Black women and families. We live in a racist society that doesn’t recognize Black women’s pain as legit. We lack public policies, like paid family medical leave, that help Black mothers in the early days after having a baby.

If Megan McCain cared at all about babies, she would be speaking up about real issues in Michigan. She would be supporting the governor’s task force to address racial disparities in birth outcomes. She would donate money to the organizations and people on the ground in Detroit, who provide car seats to every parent who needs one. But it’s easier to sit behind a keyboard and throw bombs that drive attention her way while she takes attention away from our real problems. Like the president she so often battles, McCain is bending the facts to tell a false narrative that is designed to attack and distract. It’s pretty clear that McCain took a cheap, partisan-political shot at our governor for no reason other than to discredit the governor. That’s not just nasty and unethical, it’s dangerous at a time when messages about policies addressing the COVID crisis need to be honest and accurate so that we can survive.

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Danielle Atkinson is the national executive director of Mothering Justice, a national organization dedicated to empowering mothers to influence policy on behalf of themselves and their families. You can follow her work on Twitter at @momjustice.

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