Chris Matthews Compares Kansas Abortion Regulations to Jim Crow Efforts to Disenfranchise Blacks
In the warped mind of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, efforts to regulate the practice of abortion are morally equivalent to literacy tests in the South that were aimed at preventing African-Americans from voting. The “Hardball” host made that puzzling and arguably insulting comparison on the June 30 program in a segment titled “What's the Matter with Kansas?” “Kansas may be on track to become the first state in the country to put an end to abortion,” Matthews told his audience yesterday, explaining that: A new law requires the state's abortion providers to comply with strict new regulations that set equipment, temperature and space requirements, and the Associated Press reports that as of today, only one of the state's three clinics met those requirements. Two others were denied permission to operate, effectively shutting them down [when the law takes effect] tomorrow. Before the commercial break, Matthews had promised “both sides” of the debate, but in truth supplied only one side, interviewing a left-leaning reporter and then an abortion rights activist. Matthews began his interview of D.C.-based Huffington Post reporter Laura Bassett by asking (emphasis mine): Laura, give us a sense, is that true, is this basically setting a whole bunch of conditions like they used to do with literacy tests in the South to keep blacks from voting. Is this a bunch of regulations that basically kill any chance of having an abortion legally in Kansas? An objective reporter might have been taken aback by Matthews incredibly asinine comparison with the Jim Crow south, but Bassett had no problem with Matthews' comparison: That's what they seem to be and that's what they've done. Actually, I just heard word that the third clinic has been denied a license as well, which means that a woman can no longer get an abortion in Kansas because of these impossible regulations that they were given two weeks to comply with. For a set of impossible regulations, however, one Planned Parenthood clinic WAS able yesterday, during the 5 p.m. Eastern “Hardball” broadcast to secure a license to continue abortions. Reports the Kansas City Star this morning: Shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday, state health officials notified Planned Parenthood that it would be the only abortion clinic to get a license under controversial new rules that take effect today.
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on July 1, 2011. Filed under