. >> joining me now, michelle goldberg, author of "the means of reproduction: sex, power, and the future of the world." thanks for joining me tonight, michelle. >> thanks for having me. >> so as i understand, the republicans claim they need to do this -- federal funding for abortion is already banned through the hyde amendment. so i never understand why it keeps coming up, because it's banned. >> well, i think -- >> but they're saying there's something that the democrats did 2349 president's health care bill that requires us to go in and plug some hole. >> well, there are two different things going on here. part of it is just legislation as propaganda. republicans have been claiming as part of their kind of full-court press against health care reform that it subsidizes abortion. it does not. but if they can pass a law ostensibly to stop health care reform from subsidizing abortion, it only kind of reinforces their case and helps convince their base that by fighting health care reform they're also fighting on behalf of the pro-life cause. and then they've gone above and beyond. one thing

john schmidt joins us now along with daily beast contributor, michelle goldberg. thank you for joining us on "hardball." it's always an honor to have somebody come on the show that could go anywhere they wanted to tell their story. and michelle, thank you for joining us and helping us with this story to understand it as a journalist. john, i guess the question that a lot of people want to ask is what caused you to go public with this pretty important observation, since you've been experienced in this world, that no one's ever gone through a successful, if you will, or a conversion of any kind from gay to straight? >> i think really one of the most significant things, chris, is that within the gay community, there is definitely a chasm between the gay community and the traditional american church. and it's my greatest objective to make sure that the gay community, people within the gay community understand that there's room at the table for them in a relationship with christ. and i recognized that many things that i've said in the past have communicated that maybe t

. >> we're going to be joined by michelle goldberg. she's written about the mississippi measure. michelle, tell me about the purposes of this amendment in the mississippi constitution. is it to simply, in effect, outlaw a woman's right to have an abortion? >> well, it's absolutely meant to ban abortion, all abortion. even in cases of rape or incent, in cases where a woman's life is threatened. i think it's significant that mr. blackwell wouldn't say that things like an iud or the morning-after pill or the ivf wouldn't be allowed under this measure, because it wouldn't. once you say that a fertilized egg is a human being, like you or me, you change -- i mean, you're not just kind of changing -- you're not just changing the law in the way it affects abortion, you are radically changing the definition of pregnancy, which now the medical definition of pregnancy is when a fertilized egg implants in the uterine wall, and you are going -- it's going to have all of these second order effects, not just on women who are trying to prevent pregnancy, but on women who are absolutely desperate

well, matt cooper is managing editor of "national journal daily" and michelle goldberg reports for "newsweek" and "the daily beast." michelle and matt, look at these numbers. i saw them in "the new york times" yesterday. they blew me away. charles blow ran through some of the numbers and it's just amazing. look at this number here. 86% of the american people say the wall street people and lobbyists have too much influence in america's national capital in washington. 86% say they have too much clout. those wall street guys. 79% say the income gap in this country is just too big between the wealthy and the other americans. 71% think bank ceos should face prosecution for the role in the 2008 crisis. and 68% want the rich to pay higher taxes. let me start with you, matt, my friend. it just seemed to strike me as gold for the elizabeth warrens of this world who's up there running for congress up against scott brown, in the senate up there in massachusetts. the idea that the consumer needs protection against the power of wall street lobbyists, the big shots, highly paid people down in washington,