MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry likened getting an abortion to having cancer treatment or getting a hand amputated during her show last weekend.
Harris-Perry was talking to Julian McPhillips, an Alabama attorney who represents the unborn children of minors in court proceedings. Alabama
passed an amendment to the state's Parental Consent Law in 2014 that allows for an appointment of a lawyer to represent the unborn child in such cases.
Story continues below video.
"Are you at all distressed in the ways that I am about the idea that there is a separate interest between an individual and something that is happening in her body that cannot at that moment exist outside of her body?" Harris-Perry asked.
"So, the idea, for example, that I would need a court's permission for cancer treatment or the court's permission for surgery that would remove my hand. If it's my body, I can't understand why the state would have to give me permission."
McPhillips told her that the law applies only to pregnant teens under age 18, and that "at their age and stage, they can't enter into any contract legally in any state anyway."
The rules of civil procedure in Alabama and in most states allow for the appointment of a guardian ad litem to protect the property interests of an unborn child, McPhillips said.
"We reason if the property interests of an unborn child can be protected, why not the life interests, because without the life, you can't have property," he said.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.