CNN gave an anti-abortion leader 11 minutes to spout bullshit including the absurd claim that IVF can be murder

CNN promised to bring her back — and did two days later

Special Programs Abortion Rights & Reproductive Health

Written by Julie Tulbert

Published

Screenshot from CNN

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, CNN platformed an anti-abortion extremist -- twice -- to spout dangerous lies and misinformation, including a false claim that IVF could be considered murder.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, celebrated on Twitter her two CNN appearances after the decision came down on June 24:

She definitely had reason to celebrate. While CNN’s Pamela Brown and Alisyn Camerota provided some pushback to Hawkins’ lies, they were not prepared -- and neither is cable news in general -- to handle the wave of manufactured anti-abortion talking points that Hawkins has honed to become the dishonest and dangerous extremist she is today.

Hawkins, who told MSNBC back in 2017 that she would advocate for all contraceptives to be illegal, was never going to approach these interviews in good faith. Hawkins was ready with various lies about abortion pills, anti-abortion clinics (also known as crisis pregnancy centers), and rape and incest exceptions for abortion. In reality, abortion pills are safe, with less than 0.4% of patients requiring hospitalization or blood transfusions later and “an associated mortality rate of less than 0.001 percent.” Anti-abortion clinics engage in unethical and not medically compliant procedures, and rape and incest exceptions used to be supported by conservatives but have been abandoned as the party grew more extreme.

Hawkins’ most egregious and dangerous spin came in the first of her CNN interviews, with Brown on June 25. Brown asked Hawkins about IVF procedures where a doctor must discard nonviable embryos. Brown asked, “Is that doctor then a murderer?” Hawkins answered, “Yes, the doctor is ending human life,” and claimed that some IVF procedures should be banned.

On the June 25, 2022, edition of CNN Newsroom

PAMELA BROWN (CNN ANCHOR): So if a woman goes in, she wants to -- she can't get pregnant on her own -- so, in a lab they have to take, you know, they have to do it scientifically in a lab. They have to put the egg and the sperm together to create an embryo. In the process of trying to get this woman pregnant, the doctor destroys the embryos because that's just what happens. Is that doctor then a murderer?

KRISTAN HAWKINS (PRESIDENT, STUDENTS FOR LIFE): Yes. The doctor is ending human life. 

BROWN: So, so a doctor —

HAWKINS: We don't define it as murder in our code, but that is ending human life.

BROWN: —  trying to get a woman pregnant — so, a doctor — so IVF clinics should be banned?

HAWKINS: It depends on the procedure that is used in IVF.

BROWN: But sometimes, but that's just what happens. That’s the process.

HAWKINS: But there's also the question of intentionality, as well.

Hawkins’ claim that IVF can be murder isn’t new -- the Students for Life website has a section on “talking points” about this issue. But the confines of quick cable news hits aren’t usually the best venue to debunk such an extremist. As seen in the interview, Hawkins delivered a dizzying array of supposed facts and practiced rhetoric that can misinform audiences.

However, CNN apparently saw it differently. At the end of the segment, Brown thanked Hawkins for “this fulsome discussion” and told her, “We'll have you back on for sure,” which the network did two days later on June 27 for an interview with Alisyn Camerota.

From the June 27, 2022, edition of CNN Newsroom with Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell

It went more or less the same.