MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell chided the network’s senior Capitol Hill correspondent, Garrett Haake, on Thursday for using the term “pro-life” during an on-air discussion of the Republican-backed Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act.
The bill, which requires that medical professionals care for infants born after botched abortions, passed the House along largely partisan lines on Wednesday, with only one House Democrat, Henry Cuellar of Texas, voting with Republicans.
“At the end of the day she was, as she described herself, ‘pro-life,’ and that she felt that it was important to vote for these measures despite their potentially politically damaging or politically unappealing appearance,” Haake said, referring to Representative Nancy Mace’s (R., N.C.) support for the bill.
Mitchell interjected during Haake’s response to correct his terminology.
“Let me just interrupt and say that pro-life is a term that they–an entire group wants to use–but that’s not an accurate description.”
“I am using it because that is the term she used to describe herself, Andrea,” Haake shot back.
The bill requires that medical practitioners “preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.” After such care, they must “ensure that the child born alive is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.”
Jerrold Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee who steered floor debate Wednesday, argued that the bill would actually endanger infants, rather than protecting them.
“The problem with this bill is not that it…provides any new protections for infants,” Nadler said. “The problem with this bill is that it endangers some infants [born alive] by stating that that infant must immediately be brought to the hospital.”
According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a nonprofit pro-life organization, “Only 18 states have laws offering robust protections to babies who survive abortions, although others have recently taken steps to strengthen their laws.