On Saturday night, CNN Newsroom weekend host Pamela Brown devoted a segment to promoting abortion as an important option for underage girls as she spoke with a young woman who had an abortion at age 17, and does not regret doing it. The pro-abortion activist even claimed that it "saved my life" by making it easier to go to college.
The segment also suggested that it was unreasonable to require underage girls to get either the consent of their parents or of a judge before getting an abortion. Brown introduced her guest, Veronika Granado, as she set up the segment:
Our next guest was 17 years old when an unwanted pregnancy landed her in a Texas courtroom before a judge. That is because she did not have the required parental consent for a minor to get an abortion. So, as if on trial, she had to plead her case. Veronika Granado joins me now. And, Veronika, thank you so much for coming on. I'm sure that this was one of the most difficult decisions of your life. Tell us about it. Do you have any regrets about having an abortion?
Granado started off by fully defending her abortion, and suggested there was something wrong with requiring an underage girl to get permission:
I actually have no regrets. And actually that's a great question because a lot of people assume that, you know, abortion is something to regret or something that is, you know, extremely traumatic. The only -- I would say traumatic part in my case was having to go through this extremely difficult process, you know, going in front of a judge in a setting that most criminals go through. So I felt like I was a criminal. But other than that, my abortion saved my life. It allowed me to go to college and become an engineer and pursue the dreams that I had before I got pregnant and was able to continue after the pregnancy.
In following up, the CNN host cued up her guest to speculate about how difficult her life would have been if she had not aborted her unborn baby. Brown then asked her to react to the new pro-life law in Texas making it more difficult for other girls like her to do the same. Eventually, Granado suggested again that it was wrong that her refusal to tell her parents about her pregnancy meant she had to go in front of a judge:
BROWN: What was going through your mind as you stood in front of the judge who would make the most important decision of your life?
GRANADO: Yeah, that's a great question. It's extremely relevant because the point of judicial bypass process is just to intimidate teens in situations like I was and to make them feel that they're doing something wrong because they are in this criminal setting that they probably haven't been through before. And in my situation, I wasn't in that situation before.
So it was just terrifying because I knew that if I said any little thing wrong, if I didn't sound mature enough or if I didn't give the correct response, the judge who's a male would be able to decide my fate for me and decide that I wouldn't be able to go to college and that I would have to put a hold on my life and my dreams to, you know, take care of this child that I wasn't financially able to support.
One would never expect to hear CNN speaking with a woman who regrets having an abortion, or who was glad she chose to give birth to her baby.
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Complete transcript follows, click "expand" to read:
CNN Newsroom
October 16, 2021
7:28 p.m. EasternPAMELA BROWN: In Texas, the nation's most restrictive abortion law may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. It bans abortions after six weeks into a pregnancy, often before women even know they're pregnant. Critics say it's tantamount to an abortion ban. The Justice Department says it will ask the Supreme Court to block the law.
Our next guest was 17 years old when an unwanted pregnancy landed her in a Texas courtroom before a judge. That is because she did not have the required parental consent for a minor to get an abortion. So, as if on trial, she had to plead her case. Veronica Granado joins me now. And, Veronica, thank you so much for coming on. I'm sure that this was one of the most difficult decisions of your life. Tell us about it. Do you have any regrets about having an abortion?
VERONIKA GRANADO, HAD ABORTION AS A TEEN: I actually have no regrets. And actually that's a great question because a lot of people assume that, you know, abortion is something to regret or something that is, you know, extremely traumatic. The only -- I would say traumatic part in my case was having to go through this extremely difficult process, you know, going in front of a judge in a setting that most criminals go through. So I felt like I was a criminal. But other than that, my abortion saved my life. It allowed me to go to college and become an engineer and pursue the dreams that I had before I got pregnant and was able to continue after the pregnancy.
BROWN: And if you hadn't gotten it, what do you think your life would have been like then?
GRANADO: It would have definitely been a lot harder. I'm not sure if college would still be in the question for me because, as a teen, as a -- coming from a working class family, it was difficult to get resources to be able to support me going to college, as well as supporting myself. And so I'm not sure that would have been in the question. But I know that I would have needed to get a job and kind of push college aside for a long while before that happened.
BROWN: The process that landed you in court can take many weeks, and with the six-week limit under current Texas law, you would lose that option of a legal abortion. What are your thoughts on that?
GRANADO: Yeah, that's a great question because for me it's just an extremely terrifying -- terrifying situation because in my case I found out that I was pregnant about six weeks. And the judicial bypass process took me two weeks. So even though I found out as early as I possibly could, the process forced me to take an additional two weeks to be able to actually get that procedure done. And so for a lot of people, six weeks is a lot earlier than they are able to find out they are pregnant. And so for me, I was fortunate enough to find it that early on. But in the age of SB8 and what's been going on now, it's going to make it impossible to be able to obtain an abortion within six weeks.
BROWN: What was going through your mind as you stood in front of the judge who would make the most important decision of your life?
GRANADO: Yeah, that's a great question. It's extremely relevant because the point of judicial bypass process is just to intimidate teens in situations like I was and to make them feel that they're doing something wrong because they are in this criminal setting that they probably haven't been through before. And in my situation, I wasn't in that situation before.
So it was just terrifying because I knew that if I said any little thing wrong, if I didn't sound mature enough or if I didn't give the correct response, the judge who's a male would be able to decide my fate for me and decide that I wouldn't be able to go to college and that I would have to put a hold on my life and my dreams to, you know, take care of this child that I wasn't financially able to support.
BROWN: What were the circumstances as to why you couldn't tell your parents that you were pregnant?GRANADO: So that's a great question because in a lot of situations, teens -- it just varies. For some people, they just don't have parents to involve and some people they have, you know, parents upstate. For me it was like I just wasn't on that level of like comfortability talking with my -- like my parents and stuff. And so I wasn't really as involved or as connected with them.
So I -- for my mom, she was really strict, and I knew that if I told her I was pregnant, I knew she would be really upset and that I could possibly, you know, risk being kicked out. And so I was just extremely fearful of that. And for my dad, he lives in a different state and is also extremely religious. And so I just didn't want to bring it up. And I knew that since he was in a different state, that would have been a lot complicated process, so that's why I decided to go through with it on my own.
BROWN: Well, Veronika, thanks for coming on. This is such a sensitive issue, and we appreciate you sharing your personal story.
