When reporting on a lawsuit challenging a piece of legislation, it would be common sense to report on what the legislation actually says. However, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell and legal analyst Joyce Vance declared that insisting people actually reading Texas’s abortion law is unnecessary, because the law is just “a warning to doctors” and it is “disingenuous” and “bad faith” to insist people actually read it.
The genesis of the segment was a Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor report on five Texas women who are suing the state, claiming the S.B. 8 is responsible for medical complications and ramifications they suffered as a result of medical emergencies during pregnancy.
For Mitchell, this highlighted a supposed problem with heartbeat laws. Mitchell was also not thrilled that President of Texas Right to Life John Seago defended himself in Alcindor’s report, “Joyce, doctors feel that they are facing liability and for this group in Texas to say, well it's— I saw Yamiche's piece last night and he said very clearly, it's the doctors who are at fault because they should do this. The law is clear. The law is not clear in that regard. The law is a warning to doctors, correct?”
The law is actually very clear. It plainly states that the fetal heartbeat provisions “do not apply if a physician believes a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance with this subchapter.”
However, Vance agreed with Mitchell, “That's absolutely right and it's disingenuous for legislators to pretend it’s doctors who are at fault here. What they have done is they've created an environment where it's risky for doctors to give their patients care, because if a prosecutor down the road in a red state second guesses that doctor's judgment, it's not just civil damages.”
Not only is it allegedly disingenuous, but also bad faith, “Those doctors could be looking at spending the rest of their life in prison and this is precisely the environment that these legislators hoped to craft. They very clearly say that they would like to put an end to abortion, whether that's abortion procedures or medicated abortion, women's rights are under attack on all fronts and pretending it's anything other than what it is I think demonstrates the sort of bad faith that these legislators are acting with.”
More like the bad faith of MSNBC talking heads and activist groups with axes to grind.
This segment was sponsored by The Farmer’s Dog.
Here is a transcript for the March 7 show:
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
3/7/2023
12:20 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: You know, and I have heard of other stories like this, Yamiche, I want to bring in Joyce Vance on the legal aspects of this we’ve heard even from, I believe it was in South Carolina, where a state legislator was talking about this and that's why they voted against a heartbeat law where women are forced to carry babies with no fetal heartbeat at all for weeks and there is tremendous danger to their health, as Amanda has experienced-- has experienced—and now, you know, the tragedy of what she may-- the complications she may face in the future, but Joyce, doctors feel that they are facing liability and for this group in Texas to say, well it's— I saw Yamiche's piece last night and he said very clearly, it's the doctors who are at fault because they should do this. The law is clear. The law is not clear in that regard. The law is a warning to doctors, correct?
JOYCE VANCE: That's absolutely right and it's disingenuous for legislators to pretend it’s doctors who are at fault here. What they have done is they've created an environment where it's risky for doctors to give their patients care, because if a prosecutor down the road in a red state second guesses that doctor's judgment, it's not just civil damages.
Those doctors could be looking at spending the rest of their life in prison and this is precisely the environment that these legislators hoped to craft. They very clearly say that they would like to put an end to abortion, whether that's abortion procedures or medicated abortion, women's rights are under attack on all fronts and pretending it's anything other than what it is I think demonstrates the sort of bad faith that these legislators are acting with.
