By Alex Christy
On Tuesday’s MSNBC Live with Velshi and Ruhle, co-host Ali Velshi hyped a story that came literally and metaphorically out of left field. With the context of Missouri’s last abortion providing clinic in court over its license not being renewed, Velshi introduced a new documentary produced by Katie Engelhart of the unintentionally, but appropriately named NBC Left Field that documents how women are using the internet to acquire self-inducing abortion drugs.
The segment then turned to a video clip with Engelhart narrating how women are accessing abortion pills online. Engelhart talked to a woman named Necolie who told a story about being $500 in the hole and that if she did not have a self-induced abortion, that she would have felt like, “I would have died or my kids would have got neglected.”
Engelhart also talked up Dutch Doctor Rebecca Gomperts who had previously claimed fame by performing abortions on a boat where abortion was illegal. Now, Gomperts is importing abortion pills into the U.S. which has led the FDA to send her a letter, demanding she cease the importation of the pills. “In response, Dr. Gomperts says she doesn’t intend to stop what she’s doing,” Engelhart declared.
At the end of the clip, Engelhart joined Velshi in the studio for further discussion. In the video, Engelgart described self-induced abortion’s legality as “complicated,” but told Velshi that the procedure is “illegal.”
She lamented the heavy emphasis on the legality of abortion restrictions and the battle over Roe v. Wade, because it “overlooks something important, which is that for many people, particularly low-income women, Roe v. Wade has never led to safe and affordable abortion access. And so a lot of women have been forced to find the medical care they need outside of medical or a legal setting.”
After talking about how safe the pills are, Velshi thanked Engelhart “for doing this.” During the entire segment that included preview of the documentary, no pro-life perspective was heard, whether it had been Engelhart, Velshi, or anyone else interviewed in the video.
Editor’s note. This appeared at Newsbusters and is reposted with permission.