On her Thursday 1 p.m. ET hour show on MSNBC, host Andrea Mitchell denounced a newly passed law in Arkansas preventing abortions after 12 weeks: "We're talking about the most restrictive abortion legislation in decades. Most people do not think it will pass court test muster..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
She lamented to Time magazine's Nancy Gibbs: "We're still debating whether or not in the first trimester there should be the right to abortion, all these years after Roe v. Wade." Gibbs joined in the hand-wringing: "There are a growing number of states where there are simply no abortion providers available or there's only one in the entire state, or the restrictions have become so great that effectively there is no availability of abortion....This is just the latest of what has been a pretty steady stream of state level efforts to roll back that access."
NBC and CBS similarly hyped the law as the "most restrictive abortion law in the country."
Here is a transcript of the brief March 7 exchange:
1:40PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: I wanted to also raise the issue of this Arkansas legislation now. We're talking about the most restrictive abortion legislation in decades. Most people do not think it will pass court test muster, but what about that, Nancy Gibbs? We're still debating whether or not in the first trimester there should be the right to abortion, all these years after Roe v. Wade.
NANCY GIBBS [DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, TIME]: But we're seeing this in more and more states, Andrea. So much of the fight over abortion is now being fought state by state, regardless of what happens at the national level. There are a growing number of states where there are simply no abortion providers available or there's only one in the entire state, or the restrictions have become so great that effectively there is no availability of abortion. So when we talk about the laws, there are many things that are blocking access to abortion besides the actual laws being passed. This is just the latest of what has been a pretty steady stream of state level efforts to roll back that access.
(...)
