Conservative Goes to War with CNN Panel Over Abortion in Heated Segment – ‘I’ll Have to Speak Up for the Babies’

CNN conservative contributor Scott Jennings got into a battle with multiple people during a post-vice presidential debate panel regarding the issue of abortion, stating he will “speak up for the babies.”

During the debate, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance charged that Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had signed legislation that removed the requirement that babies who are born alive during an abortion procedure receive life-saving care.

“That is fundamentally barbaric,” Vance said.

Walz responded, “That’s not true. That’s not how the law is.”

Vance accurately points out that Tim Walz repealed Minnesota’s requirement that measures be taken to preserve the “life and health” of a baby who survives an abortion, replacing it with a nebulous requirement for “care.”

Vance: “That is fundamentally barbaric.” pic.twitter.com/KukWZS2lRL

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 2, 2024

A CNN panel made up of Jennings, David Axelrod, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Anderson Cooper and Ashley Allison addressed the issue following the debate.

“This thing in Minnesota, there were eight deaths among infants who survived abortion attempts during Tim Walz’s tenure as governor. It happened. They don’t want to talk about the fact that it happened. But there were children,” Jennings said.

“What’s the source?” Griffin asked.

Axelrod then jumped in, saying, “First of all, let me ask you a question, since you’ve deeply researched this. What were the condition of these babies when they were born? What was the participation of the family?”

Not for nothing, but I’m right. Fact check is right here, folks:https://t.co/ivSQEka4fN https://t.co/OYiH7jIvQN

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 2, 2024

“Tell me what their condition was, Scott. Could they have survived, and was it a case of families not wanting children to suffer who were — when they were told that they are doomed?” Axelrod asked.

Allison then told Jennings that he and other Republicans should keep talking about abortion, because it helps Democrats maintain their gender gap with women.

“You guys are not winning. And if you run on this issue, you will not win in November,” she said.

Jennings responded, “They’re not running on this issue. They’re running on …”

Allison interrupted him saying, “They’re lying on this issue.”

“They’re running on, ‘It’s up to the states.’ And they’re running on Donald Trump’s moderate position of some reasonable restrictions. Rape, incest and life of the mother,” Jennings continued.

Axelrod responded that Trump’s “moderate position has been adopted over the course of this campaign for purposes of this campaign, after he put the justices on the Supreme Court who overturned Roe, who’ve created a crisis for women who live in 20 states in this country.”

Jennings reiterated, “His position is moderate and it is in line with what I think most Americans want. And I think Harris and Walz have proven they cannot discuss even a single restriction that they want.”

Allison then cut off Jennings in a back-and-forth with Axelrod, saying, “This is what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz believe, is that it’s none of your business what women do with their body, and so stay out of our doctors’ offices and stay out of our bed.”

Jennings fired back, “Well, I guess I’ll have to speak up for the babies. They’re not here to speak for themselves. Lord, have mercy.”

He later posted on X a link to a fact check from “The Dispatch” concluding Walz did sign legislation in May 2023 repealing provisions from Minnesota’s 2015 Born Alive Infants Protection Act as well as others from a 1976 statute regarding the matter.

Trump was 💯% correct. Post-birth abortion is real and Harris-Walz support it. At least 5 babies were born alive after botched abortions and left to die under Walz’s watch. Two of these struggling babies were given “comfort care” instead of medical care allegedly in violation of… pic.twitter.com/OMrwWaK0NU

— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) August 6, 2024

The news outlet reported, “The [2023] bill left intact the first subdivision—which read ‘All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken to preserve the life and health of the child’—but changed its language requiring medical personnel to ‘preserve the life and health of the born alive infant’ to instead require medical personnel to ‘care for the infant who is born alive.’”

“The bill also repealed many of Minnesota’s abortion reporting requirements, including information about born-alive infants.”

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