MSNBC’s online coverage of Scott Walker’s new 20-week abortion ban is about as biased as they come. The story was featured with a screen-filling headline which boldly stated “WALKER BANS CHOICE.” This blatant attempt to slam Walker was eventually changed to “NO CHOICE,” omitting the Republican hopeful’s name. Despite this minor change, the content of this so-called “report” continued to hold true to the liberal networks pro-abortion style.
The article by Irin Carmon begins by highlighting that this bill does not provide an exception for rape, and suggests the legislation is nothing but a campaign stunt to rally Walker’s conservative voter base for the GOP presidential primaries:
Just in time for his nascent presidential campaign, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Monday banning abortion at 20 weeks — without an exception for rape and incest and with only a narrow emergency exception.
In doing so, he reasserts his anti-abortion bonafides after a midterm election where he soft-pedaled his position on the issue, irritating a key portion of the Republican base.
The report then went on to try and discredit the objective of the bill – banning abortion once an unborn child is capable of feeling pain – by quoting and citing a petition signed by doctors and OB/GYNs, yet didn’t provide coverage on any of the many surgeons and doctors who hold the opposite opinion.
“At five months, that’s the time when that unborn child can feel pain,” Walker said. “When an unborn child can feel pain, we should be protecting that child.”
But Walker’s assertions are disputed by the medical evidence,
which has overwhelmingly found that pain receptions come weeks later in gestation. “This is bad medicine, based on the thoroughly debunked fallacy that a 20-week fetus — which is not viable — can feel pain,” wrote 99 physicians, all members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in a letter. They said the law “would block Wisconsin ob-gyns from being able to treat our patients in a medically appropriate and humane manner.”
Finally, Carmon offered up the Democratic National Convention’s opinion, yet ignored the Republican party’s views on the new law– slanting the report in a way that favors their biased opinion on the matter.
Kaylie Hanson, a press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, responded, “If it wasn’t clear before, it is now …. Maybe he doesn’t think we’re capable, maybe he doesn’t trust us, or maybe he wants to make the decision for us. Whatever it is, this statement is just another line from Scott Walker that proves what we’ve known all along: he’s wrong for women.”
