The View has a knack for distilling some thorny current events, but every now and then, even they need a little extra time to untangle the headlines.

On this morning’s episode of the daytime talk show, moderator Whoopi Goldberg had to fully repeat a Hot Topic when the audience and her co-hosts were equally confused.

As she welcomed viewers back from a commercial break, Goldberg began to read off the second Hot Topic of the episode, but seemed to become increasingly puzzled with every word that came out of her mouth.

“As concerns grow over U.S. reproductive rights, a circuit court just ruled that a Texas law which requires parental consent before a minor can get birth control somehow does not conflict with federal guidelines that gives [sic] minors confidential access to it,” she said, as a perplexed Joy Behar could be heard asking “Huh?”

(Editor’s Note: The View is currently on hiatus; contrary to what you may have heard, The View was not canceled today. This article was originally published on March 14, 2024 when this episode first aired. The View will return with new episodes in September.)

Goldberg, reading the room like a pro, asked, “Does this make any sense to you?”

When the studio audience replied, “No,” Goldberg replied, “OK, you wanna hear it one more time? Because it is confusing.”

“Re-roll, please,” she said, as legal expert Sunny Hostin tried to help explain the complicated issue, reminding the panel, “Federal law usually trumps state law, every time.”

Goldberg said, “That’s what this is about,” then repeated, “As concerns grow over U.S. reproductive rights, circuit court just ruled that a Texas law which requires parental consent before a minor can go get birth control somehow does not conflict with federal guidelines that give minors confidential access to it.”

Behar, always itching to get to the point, asked bluntly, “So can you get it or can’t you?” as Hostin explained, “Not without parental consent.”
Photo: ABC

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After they’d gotten a firmer grip on the specifics, Behar asked, “So they think in Texas that if you are not allowed as a 16-year-old to get birth control that you won’t have sex? That’s their thinking. I have news for you.”

When Goldberg mentioned Olivia Rodrigo‘s distribution of free condoms and morning after pills at her concert in Missouri, Behar got in another quippy remark when she joked, “Did they do this during, like, Tony Bennett concerts? Hand out condoms?”

Goldberg, not missing a beat, shot back, “Most of us were born to Tony Bennett!”