On Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, guest host Brianna Keilar during her interview with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson suggested that Republican states with pro-life laws are forcing women to have babies.
“Arkansas has an unenviable record on maternal and infant care. But you've taken some steps to improve care for mothers and infants like expanding Medicaid coverage for pregnant women” Keilar said to Hutchinson.
After insulting his state, she asked the Governor if “Republican states are going to force women to have babies they wouldn't otherwise have had, do those Republican-led states need to support them more? Because many states are not doing this.”
Hutchinson never corrected her that pro-life laws prohibiting the killing of unborn babies aren’t forcing women to have babies. Life was already created by the time the abortion was to take place.
Instead, Hutchinson discussed how he wants the government in his state to provide maternal care, improved foster care, and increased adoption services. “We want to expand Medicaid coverage, health care services for that mom with that young child in their home to increase the chances of survivability and better health outcomes, both for the mom and both for the child,” Hutchinson said.
Keilar then brought up the case in “Nebraska where an 18-year-old and her mother are facing multiple charges after allegedly conducting an illegal self-managed medicated abortion.”
She claimed, “you had police there obtaining their private Facebook messages which is raising concerns that law enforcement is going to use people’s private data to enforce state abortion laws.”
Turning to Hutchinson, Keilar asked if that’s “something that you would endorse in Arkansas? And do you think this is right?”
Keilar ignored the fact that the Nebraska woman illegally used the self-medicating abortion drug to kill her 23-week-old baby and then burned and buried the baby’s body.
This CNN segment smearing pro-life laws and distorting a murder case to push the left’s abortion blood lust was made possible by Verizon. Their information is linked so you can contact them.
To read the relevant transcript click “expand”:
CNN’s State of the Union
8/14/2022
9:37:08 a.m. EasternBRIANNA KEILAR: I want to talk to you about abortion. Because Arkansas has done something interesting. Arkansas has an unenviable record on maternal and infant care. But you've taken some steps to improve care for mothers and infants like expanding Medicaid coverage for pregnant women. If you’re going— if Republican states are going to force women to have babies they wouldn't otherwise have had, do those Republican-led states need to support them more? Because many states are not doing this.
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON: Well, the answer is, yes. And I hope that we're all looking at that because in Arkansas because we had a trigger law that we have reduced the number of abortions dramatically. Last year we had 3,000. That means there's going to be 3,000 pregnancies in round numbers that might be unwanted or might be under difficult circumstances.
So, we've got to provide the maternal care, the improved foster care. We've got to be able to provide increased adoption services. It's not because we've neglected that in the past. It's because we do anticipate more live births, which is a good thing and something we support.
So, here in Arkansas, we have made progress in reducing teen pregnancy, but our infant mortality rate is not where it should be. That counts those infants that die in the first year after birth. So, we want to expand Medicaid coverage, health care services for that mom with that young child in their home to increase the chances of survivability and better health outcomes, both for the mom and both for the child.
KEILAR: I want to ask you about something in Nebraska where an 18-year-old and her mother are facing multiple charges after allegedly conducting an illegal self-managed medicated abortion. You had police there obtaining their private Facebook messages which is raising concerns that law enforcement is going to use people’s private data to enforce state abortion laws. Complicated case, yes, but is that something that you would endorse in Arkansas? And do you think this is right?
HUTCHINSON: Well, I'm not familiar with that specific case, but it's very important under Arkansas law and that in all of the pro-life laws that we have that we say that it's illegal to perform an abortion and the penalties is after the provider. There's no punishment for the woman. That is not the target of what we have nor should it be—
[crosstalk]
KEILAR: The provider in this case would be -- it was self-managed.
[crosstalk]
KEILAR: So don't go after them, you're saying?
HUTCHINSON: Yeah, don't go after the woman. That’s not the target of that. If there's some provider or some internet provider that sent that medication in, that would be a violation of Arkansas law, but there's no penalty, consequences for the woman. We have sympathy for her. We want to improve the health. We want to help them make the right decisions and to care for that child.
