CNN Health published an article on Wednesday titled “Before judging ‘late-term abortion,’ understand what it means, doctors say.” This article hardly qualifies as balanced, if for no other reason than the doctors author Jessica Ravitz chose to interview. One doctor interviewed by Ravitz demonized opponents of late-term abortion as “anti-abortion extremists.” Fox News’s Laura Ingraham discussed the article on her show, The Ingraham Angle, Wednesday night; and invited a pro-life doctor on her show “since CNN wasn’t interested in an opposing view.”
One of the doctors interviewed by Ravitz, Jennifer Conti, works for an advocacy group titled “Physicians for Reproductive Health” and co-hosts a podcast called “The V Word.” Not surprisingly, Conti described the phrase “Late term” as an “invention of anti-abortion extremists to confuse, mislead, and increase stigma.” Conti also described “gestational age limits” as “ideologically motivated and not based in science” and complained that “your right to an abortion is now absolutely based on the accident of your ZIP code.”
The other doctor quoted in the article, Barbara Levy, serves as Vice President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; which “opposes undue interference of politics in medicine,” according to the article. Perhaps Levy should direct her opposition to “undue interference of politics in medicine” towards her fellow interviewee Dr. Conti, since the term “anti-abortion extremists” comes across as quite political.
Ingraham began the segment on her show by accusing CNN of “providing cover for radical late-term abortion practices” and went on to read a quote from the article asserting that “misleading hypotheticals show disregard and contempt for people who have had an abortion later in pregnancy. People who have abortions deserve empathy and understanding, not judgment.”
Ingraham introduced her guest, Dr. Omar Hamada, who argued that the idea expressed by Conti in the article describing it as “nonsensical to legislate late-term abortions” is “crazy because what we’re doing is actually trying to protect the lives of both the moms and the babies.” Hamada stressed throughout the segment that “as obstetricians, we have two patients; we have the mom and we have the baby.” The segment concluded with Hamada declaring that the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors pledge to “do no harm,” has “gone out the window.”
The one-sided angle of the CNN Health article should not have come as that much of a surprise considering the fact that CNN has done its best to act as a PR firm for the pro-abortion movement; first by refusing to cover the radical abortion bill proposed in Virginia, and later by cutting off guest Stephen Moore when he wanted to bring it up.
CNN has apparently decided to bring the covert liberal activism so apparent on its TV programming to the web. The article contained links to many other articles with a pro-choice perspective, including another article written by Ravitz highlighting the plight of women in Texas who have to travel hundreds of miles to get an abortion. CNN might as well drop the pretense of objectivity and change its name to PCNN, Pro-Choice News Network.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Wednesday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The Ingraham Angle
02/06/19
10:52 PM
LAURA INGRAHAM: Now, why is CNN providing cover for radical late-term abortion practices? In a piece published in their CNN “Health” section, that’s rich, author Jessica Ravitz interviews two OB-GYNs, one of whom who describes pro-lifers as antiabortion extremists. Ravitz’s conclusion in the end is “Misleading hypotheticals show disregard and contempt for people who have had an abortion later in pregnancy. People who have had abortions deserve empathy and understanding, not judgment.” Well, since CNN wasn’t interested in an opposing view here, we thought we’d get one for, get one from Dr. Omar Hamada, an OB-GYN himself. Omar, Dr. Jennifer Conti is quoted in the CNN piece, and says that it’s nonsensical to legislate late-term abortions against them because no one arrives at the decision easily. Does that hold water with you?
DR. OMAR HAMADA: Well, certainly no one arrives at a decision easily. But it being nonsensical to legislate later term abortions is crazy because what we’re doing is actually trying to protect the lives of both the moms and the babies and what they’re trying to do really is just redefine the terms and play with the language, so they’re saying that we are antiabortion extremists, but they’re also calling us forced birthers. And whatever languaging they’re trying to use to take the focus off of what’s really happening, I really don’t care…
INGRAHAM: Well…
HAMADA: …what they, what they call it.
INGRAHAM: Yeah, Dr. Hamada, you think what they’re doing is they’re arguing that there are people like you and other pro-life people, doctors and so forth, who are heartless, lacking in compassion, they don’t care, when the practice itself…we’re not talking about first trimester, and a lot of Americans are okay with that. We’re talking about when a baby is viable and, and even born.
HAMADA: Yeah, exactly.
INGRAHAM: Already born.
HAMADA: Exactly. And we care deeply about these moms. But we also care deeply about these babies. I mean, how can somebody look in the face of a baby and essentially kill it? And they’re able to do that psychologically I think because it’s… they’re doing it before the baby is actually out of the mom, so they’re not seeing what they are actually doing. But it’s, it’s just minutes away from being born. I mean, those babies can exist and live without any problem outside of the mom.
INGRAHAM: Well, a lot of women have seen, have had emergency c-sections, and it’s like a month before their due, due date, and they have an emergency…and the baby’s fine. I’ve met kids that were born three months premature. They’re incredible people.
HAMADA: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: They’re people, they’re human beings. Doctor, this is what Dr. Barbara Levy, another OB-GYN quoted in this piece, she says, “It’s important to remember, whether in a discussion about abortion care”…that’s what they call it, abortion care… “or any other component of care, that these are complicated, nuanced circumstances that affect the course of real people’s lives.” Well, in the case of the baby, the life is snuffed out. But you see they’re using this kind of, “Well, it’s nuanced, you guys are, you guys are making this a black and white issue, it’s not.” So you’re, you’re trying to substitute your judgment for the judgment of a woman and her doctor.
HAMADA: Right. And sure, it is nuanced and there are a lot of things that need to be considered but the primary thing that needs to be considered, as, as obstetricians, we have two patients; we have the mom and we have the baby. And for us to be successful, both patients need to be taken care of and ideally, we need to, we need to be able to protect the lives of both.
INGRAHAM: Well, what happened to the Hippocratic Oath? First, do no harm.
HAMADA: It’s gone out the window. Yeah, it’s gone out the window.
INGRAHAM: Yeah.
HAMADA: And I don’t know what happened. They define…I’m sorry, go ahead.
INGRAHAM: I want to…we’re out of time but we’re going to expose this to med schools across the country, I’ve heard from med students, are being forced to carry out and to learn about abortion, even though they have conscience rights protections and they feel compelled to do that. Doctor, thank you so much.
