Criticizing HHS Regs on “O’Reilly”
National Institute for Reproductive Health’s own VP of Communications Mary Alice Carr appeared on The O’Reilly Factor on Friday, courageously taking on Laura Ingraham over the new HHS Regulations:
Mary Alice, responding with level-headed accuracy to Ingraham’s vitriolic barking, was wise to point out that the new regulations contain a needless reaffirmation of existent law, since the conscience clause opt-out is actually widely used by doctors. Mary Alice also emphasized that if women are not receiving the care they need from their doctors, they at least have a basic right to accurate referrals and information, so that their conscience is no less important than their doctors’.
Ingraham clearly sees no need for greater access to abortion care and information, since she disagrees that there’s even a scientific basis for abortion care (note Mary Alice’s “are you freaking kidding me?!?” response). Ingraham also thinks that “it’s pretty easy to find an abortion provider.” Perhaps we should e-mail her a copy of the Guttmacher study that found that 87% of counties in America do not have an abortion provider and that the number of providers actually fell by 24% from 1992 to 2005.
Ingraham closed the segment out by taking the conversation to that inevitable anti-choice terminus of equating abortion with “killing a baby.” And there we have it from America’s finest Fair and Balanced news network…
By Tara Sweeney