MSNBC Tries To Have It Both Ways On Alabama's Embryo-Personhood Ruling

February 27th, 2024 3:48 PM

Ever since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that an embryo is a life, the media has tried to have it both ways. They have tried to mourn the supposed threat to IVF, which means aspiring parents will have their dreams of having a baby crushed while also denying the embryo is a life. Tuesday’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC was just the latest example, as Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor condemned the ruling while embracing its logic.

Mitchell began by asking, “You were in Alabama in the wake of the ruling. You were telling heartbreaking stories. You could not, you know, get past the real pain and suffering and the uncertainty and the expense, all of that wrapped up and how do they justify this?”

 

 

While playing up the idea that IVF embryos enable people to become parents, Alcindor decried the ruling that declared that aspiring parents could sue those who destroy their future baby, “The human impact of this was just sweeping, Andrea. I talked to so many people who had spent years, thousands of dollars, pulling money out of their 401(k)s, trying to pursue the dream of having a family and having these precious babies they wanted, and they were told in these hardest conversations of their lives that they were not allowed to have the treatment that they thought they could deserve.”

Ultimately, the media has been upset at the Alabama case for two reasons. First, the promise of parenthood found in the embryo shreds the pro-abortion case that a fetus is not alive. Second, because IVF involves both intentional and unintentional destruction of embryos, the media has been silent on related ethical concerns because the industry also tries to have it both ways. If sex-selective abortion is wrong, what does that make sex-selective IVF and sex-selective embryo destruction? The media would rather not ask and just portray pro-life logic as extremist on the wrong side of polling showing 85 percent of Americans support IVF.

Ultimately, pro-abortion people in and outside the media do not feel the need to have an answer for when life begins, they’ll just take whatever position suits their agenda at any given moment, as Alcindor proved when she continued, “Of course, the justification from this judge has been that an embryo is a child. He was quoting from the Bible when he had his concurring opinion when the ruling came down more than a week ago now, but I’ve talked to so many doctors and women who now are looking at this and saying that they are hoping that a legislative fix is coming.”

Alcindor further hyped, “We’ve seen now Republicans and Democrats in the state of Alabama coming together saying that they want to push for legislation that would make an embryo outside of a person's body, not a child under state law, and we’re going to expect hundreds of people to be at the state house tomorrow in Alabama, supporters of IVF coming and saying they say they need a fix now.”

The media can have an honest conversation about IVF and the beginning of life or it can try to help Democrats paint pro-lifers as out-of-touch extremists, but it cannot do both. Thus far, it has chosen the latter.

Here is a transcript for the February 27 show:

MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports

2/27/2024

12:37 PM ET

ANDREA MITCHELL: You were in Alabama in the wake of the ruling. You were telling heartbreaking stories. You could not, you know, get past the real pain and suffering and the uncertainty and the expense, all of that wrapped up and how do they justify this? 

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The human impact of this was just sweeping, Andrea. I talked to so many people who had spent years, thousands of dollars, pulling money out of their 401(k)s, trying to pursue the dream of having a family and having these precious babies they wanted, and they were told in these hardest conversations of their lives that they were not allowed to have the treatment that they thought they could deserve. 

Of course, the justification from this judge has been that an embryo is a child. He was quoting from the Bible when he had his concurring opinion when the ruling came down more than a week ago now, but I’ve have talked to so many doctors and women who now are looking at this and saying that they are hoping that a legislative fix is coming. We’ve seen now Republicans and Democrats in the state of Alabama coming together saying that they want to push for legislation that would make an embryo outside of a person's body, not a child under state law, and we’re going to expect hundreds of people to be at the state house tomorrow in Alabama, supporters of IVF coming and saying they say they need a fix now.