NBC correspondent Dana Griffin suited up for Team Abortion on Saturday’s edition of Today. Griffin claimed that the issue goes “beyond politics for women” and embraced all the activist premises when she asked the petitioner of the Arizona Supreme Court case if “women should have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies.”
Griffin began by noting Vice President Kamala Harris’s and Donald Trump’s responses to the ruling. On Trump, Griffin quoted him as posting on Truth Social, “’ the Supreme Court in Arizona went too far’ and ‘we must ideally have the three exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother,’” but she also added some further editorializing that Harris did not get “But the issue of abortion access goes beyond politics for women.”
It could be said that protecting the unborn goes beyond politics as well, but Griffin did not show pro-lifers the same courtesy. What she did show was an unidentified woman claiming she experienced “disbelief” and “anger” at the ruling. Griffin further reported that “Dr. Jill Gibson said patients were shocked and confused.”
Outside of a Planned Parenthood, Gibson claimed she “had friends calling me saying was it still safe for friends who were pregnant who are out of state to travel to Arizona to visit them. This is the atmosphere of fear.”
There was nothing in Gibson’s response that touched on abortion, but Griffin never bothered to follow up and ask why simply traveling to Arizona would be unsafe.
Griffin did allow a brief glimpse into the thoughts of the other side from OB-GYN Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, “It’s the state’s duty to protect human life in every situation.”
After introducing Hazelrigg as the man “who opened the door for the court's ruling after he petitioned for the case to be reviewed,” Griffin embraced the pro-abortion framing as she asked him, “Do you think women should have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies?”
As for Hazelrigg’s response, it was almost certainly heavily edited down, “Within a certain context, and with certain limitations.”
It would have been nice if NBC allowed Hazelrigg to explain what he meant by “certain context,” but Griffin had to get back to the pro-abortion activists “Some people in the state now galvanized to make their vote count in November, when they will likely weigh in on an expected ballot measure to codify reproductive rights in the state's constitution.”
A second unidentified woman explained, “We want everyone to have a choice about their own bodies. It's not a politician's choice.”
Whether it is a life is a matter of fact, not opinion, but NBC decided not to pursue that angle.
Here is a transcript for the April 13 show:
NBC Today
4/13/2024
7:13 AM ET
DANA GRIFFIN: So, the attorney general has already made it clear she will not prosecute any doctors who perform abortions when this law is reinstated, but the doctors I spoke with plan to follow the law and stop performing abortions until it is legal again.
Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally in Tucson, slamming the Arizona Supreme Court ruling that enforces a Civil War-era law banning nearly all abortions.
KAMALA HARRIS: Here in Arizona, they have turned back the clock to the 1800s.
GRIFFIN: Adding that former President Trump is partly to blame.
HARRIS: As much harm as he has already caused, a second Trump term would be even worse.
GRIFFIN: On Truth Social, Trump writing “the Supreme Court in Arizona went too far” and “we must ideally have the three exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.” But the issue of abortion access goes beyond politics for women.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Disbelief, anger.
GRIFFIN: Dr. Jill Gibson said patients were shocked and confused.
JILL GIBSON: I had friends calling me saying was it still safe for friends who were pregnant who are out of state to travel to Arizona to visit them. This is the atmosphere of fear.
GRIFFIN: The 1864 law which only makes exceptions for the life of the mother and makes performing abortions punishable by up to five years in prison was decided Tuesday in a bombshell ruling by the state Supreme Court.
ERIC HAZELRIGG: It’s the state’s duty to protect human life in every situation
GRIFFIN: Dr. Eric Hazelrigg is the OB-GYN who opened the door for the court's ruling after he petitioned for the case to be reviewed.
Do you think women should have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies?
HAZELRIGG: Within a certain context, and with certain limitations.
GRIFFIN: Some people in the state now galvanized to make their vote count in November, when they will likely weigh in on an expected ballot measure to codify reproductive rights in the state's constitution.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN 2: We want everyone to have a choice about their own bodies. It's not a politician's choice.
