Over the weekend, CNN allowed three different Georgia Democratic officials to appear as guests on air to attack the newly passed heartbeat bill that Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp plans to sign into law, outlawing abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
Arguments in favor of the ban were totally absent as no right-leaning guests were included to argue their point of view.
On Sunday evening, CNN host Ana Cabrera hyped an "impassioned" speech given by State Senator Jen Jordan as she brought the Georgia Democrat on as a guest to complain about the bill. At 6:23 p.m. Eastern, Cabrera plugged the segment: "Georgia's governor says he's ready to sign the most restrictive abortion law in the nation, and now one state lawmaker's impassioned plea is going viral."
Then came a clip of Jordan threatening pro-life legislators as she spoke to the Georgia State Senate: "If you shirk the most basic duties you have to protect the fundamental rights of women today, then no doubt the women of this state will reclaim their rights after they have reclaimed your seats."
A few minutes later, Cabrera introduced the segment by reiterating that Governor Kemp plans to sign the "restrictive" law, and noted that, at six weeks pregnancy, "a woman may not even know she is pregnant at that point." She then played about a minute of the 13-minute speech State Senator Jordan gave defending abortion.
After bringing aboard Jordan, the closest the CNN host came to challenging her came when she asked about the fact that some women in the state legislature had voted for the ban, but Cabrera gave no pushback defending the bill when State Senator Jordan dismissed the pro-life views of some women as political tribalism.
Cabrera began the segment by asking Jordan about her "powerful" and "painful" personal story about having been pregnant 10 times but only giving birth twice. In a floor speech, she announced "I have lost seven pregnancies in varying points of time before 20 weeks and one after five months. Her name was Juliette." She can recognize the humanity of an unborn child....if it were hers.
The CNN host's next couple of questions dealt with how other state legislators reacted to the speech, and whether she had succeeded in changing the minds of any of her colleagues.
Cabrera then followed up: "You talk about women's rights, but there were women who voted for this bill. Why do you think they see it differently?"
Jordan responded:
I think it is one of those things where it has become such a -- I don't know, in terms of pro-choice and pro-life, it really is everybody in their corners, but, with a bill like this, when you're talking about banning abortion before women even know that they are pregnant and invading really the doctor-patient relationship, I think it goes beyond just the normal tropes that we deal with in terms of, you know, I value life or I value choice. I mean, this really is about a woman's autonomy and freedom, and this bill really relegated us to second-class status in this state.
State Senator Jordan ended up predicting that women would die if OBGYNs leave the state as a result of the new restrictions.
Earlier in the day, CNN host Fredricka Whitifeld hosted Georgia State Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikema Williams -- also a Planned Parenthood official -- to fearmonger about the heartbeat bill.
And, as previously documented by NewsBusters, CNN's New Day Saturday had Democratic State Rep. Erica Thomas on the show as a guest to complain about the proposed law.
