During an interview on this Sunday's Meet the Press, Republican Akansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson called the SCOTUS overturning Roe V. Wade a "very appropriate ruling," and dismissed concerns that women could be prosecuted under his state's trigger law which made abortions illegal in all cases except to save the life of the mother.
Host Chuck Todd asked Hutchinson if he was "comfortable" with a law that would prevent a 13-year-old who was raped by a relative from getting an abortion in his state. Hutchinson refused to admit that it was a mistake not to have exceptions for rape and incest, claimed that the law would "save lives," claimed he would have "preferred a different outcome," and defended the notion that women having control over their own reproductive health ought to be left up to a vote.
After pretending that his party isn't ready to come after birth control, the morning after pill and IUDs, Hutchinson attempted to assure Todd that doctors who treat women who have miscarriages won't have anything to worry about:
CHUCK TODD: This is between a doctor and the woman then, when it comes to those decisions? I say that so the doctor can feel as if there's no criminal liability they’re under when they treat women and decide that an abortion is necessary, due to save her life? That doctor's not going to get investigated? That doctor's not going to get harassed?
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON: They certainly should not. But it's very important that doctors have always made life and health and death decisions. That's what they're trained to do. They have to make those medical judgments. And it's not the state's judgment to reconfigure those or to rethink those. They make those judgments. And the decision that has to be made is whether there's an abortion, and then you go after the provider as a criminal penalty, not the woman. That's a very important thing.
Hutchinson should ask the Texas Republicans who are saying the quiet part out loud what they think about that.
Todd followed up with this:
CHUCK TODD: Whatever you thought of Roe, that decision never forced anybody to do anything they didn't want to do. This decision now will force a woman to carry a pregnancy that they perhaps didn't want to do. Does that at all make you uncomfortable, that we know – you're forcing somebody to do something they don't want to do? Roe didn't do that. This ruling does.
Of course they're not, Chuck.
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON: Well, no, I think it's a very appropriate ruling. Obviously, when you're looking at the government and the power of the government forcing someone to carry a child to term, you've got to think that through. And legislators are thinking that through. And whenever you're looking at the opportunity to save the unborn child, that is the rare circumstance in this case that you use the power of the state to say, "Unless the health of the mother is at risk, let's carry that child to term." And so when you're saving life, that's an appropriate role of the state. And that's what the courts have said the states can determine. Other states might make a different judgment. That's why we have elections. That's why we have elected representatives to make these best judgments pertaining to life. And that's what Arkansas did under the circumstances. It'll continue to be debated. But for right now, that's the judgment that we've made.
Just don't expect them to have the same concerns when it comes to regulating guns.
