Pro-Life Guest Appalls Hosts of ABC's 'The View'

Media Research Center ^ | January 22, 2003 | Brent Baker

[Stand Watch Listen]

The View gang ganged up, though politely, on a guest on Tuesday who dared to suggest that abortion may not always be a wonderful experience. Actress Jennifer O'Neill came aboard to promote her “Silent No More” campaign and told how she regrets having an abortion and how pregnancy sites with which she's affiliated inform mothers of the physical and emotional risk of an abortion.

     Her variance from the “pro-choice” line clearly appalled the regulars on the ABC daytime show, especially Joy Behar and former NBC News reporter Star Jones, though former CBS News reporter Meredith Viera also revealed where she stands. (Barbara Walters was out, replaced by former Saturday Night Live cast member Ana Gasteyer who was also appalled that O'Neill's work might threaten Roe v Wade.) In the next segment, actress Katey Segal scolded the View team for being so “polite” to O'Neill.

     Some of the comments and exchanges on the January 21 The View, as transcribed by MRC intern Rudy Peseckas:

     -- Before O'Neill appeared, Behar was upset that a poll about abortion included the views of men:
     Behar: "Just ask women because we're the ones who have to do it all, so I just think that it's our business, it's our problem and leave them out of it [audience applauds]....Look, if I had a set of scrotum then it would be my problem, right? If my scrotum was in trouble -- scroti [everyone's laughing, crosstalk]. Since I'm the one that's carrying the baby, I want to be the one to decide....I think it's a woman's issue and just be concerning women, and the Senate is comprised of majority of men, the Congress is men, and they're making decisions for women, and I don't like it."

     -- O'Neill noted that “80 percent of women that go in and have the opportunity to have an ultrasound change their mind. They do want their babies. I was not told that, and a lot of women–"
     Behar jumped in: "There seems to be a lot of shame around just having an abortion, though, which I think, I don't understand. It's a legal thing in this country, but a lot of women are embarrassed to say that they've had one. Maybe we should change that."

     -- Jones lectured her: “But Jennifer, there is a difference between secrecy and privacy, and there are some women who say this is a matter of my business and my body and I need to make a choice that’s right for me at this time.”

     -- O'Neill advised that if you “have a teenager and you think you are doing them a favor with an unwanted pregnancy to go and get an abortion you are sentencing them to 30 percent higher risk of cancer. That’s a fact that you need to know before you make that choice.”
     Behar countered: “But it is also a fact that it’s a higher risk to have a child, to give birth than it is to have an abortion.”
     O’Neill: “That’s not true.”
     Behar: “That’s what I read.”

     -- Viera worried: “But prior to abortion becoming legal that’s when things were really secret much more so than after it became legal, and very dangerous. So there is going to be abortion one way or the other.”

     -- O’Neill urged adoption: “Offer adoption as an option. One-third of our babies conceived in this country are aborted, now perhaps it's a little better now.”
     Behar complained: “I think that adopted children have issues of their own too and giving up a baby after its come to term is a very painful thing also. I know girls who gave up babies years ago in the '60s before Roe v Wade and they suffer to this day that they gave up their baby so theres that issue too.” 
     O’Neill: “I just want them to have the option, look at all the different ways that you can go-”
     Behar: “Well I’m afraid that your particular thing that you are going to thell them is going to influence them to roll back their abortion rights.”

     -- Jones proposed: “Suppose I am eighteen years old. I’m going to college. I was careless I made a mistake. My life is ahead of me and I have chosen that I want to terminate that pregnancy and I don’t want to hear from you Miss O’Neill. In the first trimester, I make the decision in seven weeks. I don’t want to hear the options. I’ve made an informed decision.”
     O’Neill zinged her: “How can you be informed if you haven’t heard the options?”
     Jones: “Because I am a smart women who is at eighteen, I have looked it up. This is what I want to say, if I’m that person what do you say to me?”

     -- Ana Gasteyer inadvertently suggested most women are idiots: “The whole point of family planning is to give you options and alternatives. In fact the whole rollback is the fear that people don’t know that they have the option of abortion.”

     -- In the next segment, actress Katey Segal, best-known as the mother in Fox's old Married....With Children, came aboard to plug her new ABC sit-com, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. She scolded The View crew: “Well I thought you girls were extremely polite....I think she is not going to Washington to do much other than probably try and alter things. I mean I have a lot of opinions about that but do you really want to talk about that? It seems you covered that a lot, I’m definitely pro choice that's what I will say [audience applause] and I thought you girls...but you know I like that everybody has an opinion and I think you are extremely polite.”

     The Web site for The View: http://abc.abcnews.go.com/theview/main.html

     The Internet Movie Database bio page for Segal: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Sagal,+Katey

     Web site for 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter:
http://abc.abcnews.go.com/primetime/8simplerules/index.html

     Jennifer O'Neill is best-known for her role in the 1972 movie, Summer of '42. For her IMDB bio: http://us.imdb.com/Name?O%27Neill,+Jennifer+(I)

     Fun fact, she's in her ninth marriage: http://us.imdb.com/Bio?O%27Neill,%20Jennifer%20(I)

     For an old picture of her, check out a poster for the Summer of '42 movie: http://us.imdb.com/Posters?0067803

     Her abortion alternatives Web site: www.PregnancyCenters.org

     The View boasts having women hosts “with different points of view,” but on abortion they all have one view. -- Brent Baker

[victim soul]

Ditto

[hocndoc]

Kitkat,
They just aren't human enough for those who are willing to discriminate against people they can't see. And they pose an obstacle between some woman or man and what they think they want.

[hocndoc]

And prostitution is an example of "it will happen anyway."
And, for the most part, prostitutes are slaves to their pimps or the dealer of some illegal drug. But, no one is trying to get rid of the laws against slavery.

[RnMomof7]

I Roughly half the dead kids in the trash can are male.

I did a research paper on the effect of abortion on the male partner..they actually had a group for men to talk it out at the local University sexuality program. They often suffer grief and loss and deprression

I would point out the other half of those in garbage cans are little girls without a choice

[JCon1966]

I just found this site and want to thank you for what you have written concerning The View. I have been furious over that particular show - have not watched it since, and it has changed my opinion of Katie Segal. It was courageous of Jennifer O'Neal to step forward with her own personal story and the treatment she received on that show was deplorable. Although some say the link between breast cancer and abortion has not been substantiated, once explained, it is surprisingly simple and makes absolute sense.

I am tired of Hollywood liberals touting women's rights while their lives are full of contradictions and inconsistencies. They claim to support women's rights and freedoms, however become the first to turn their backs on women in other countries who have no rights. I guess women in other countries who are raped and murdered for being female don't deserve help from our country because the cost is too high and "Hollywood" is unwilling to deem these tortured souls as equals.

Although the argument for abortion can be made in some cases, I don't understand the unwillingness to face the statistics of breast cancer and abortion. Late term abortions are yet another example of people simply not facing the truth....because the truth is hard to hear. Don't tell a mother who just lost a baby to miscarriage that her loss was not of value and that her baby was not a baby. I can assure you, even those who are pro-abortion feel a devastating loss after a miscarriage.....just ask Katie Segal. You can't have it both ways and make sense!!!

[Coleus]

Silent No More Awareness Campaign

[Kuksool]

Gotta love the tolerance that liberals preach.

[Mears]

That's what I was going to say.Everything I've read about The View makes me glad I've never seen it,and never will.

[Shooter 2.5]

Conservatives are using the wrong tactic. They should applaud when liberals have abortions. Had the Liberal's children grown up to vote and followed in their parent's footsteps, Gore would be president today.

Learn to use their own arguments against them and they might wake up. Well, no. they aren't that smart but it's fun to tweak their noses.

[HIDEK6]

Just ask women because we're the ones who have to do it all, so I just think that it's our business, it's our problem and leave them out of it

I got that BS once when talking to a baby-murdering advocate.

I told her I was not speaking as a man, but as a former baby.

I don't think she ever stopped blubbering.

[Kuksool]

A clever idea. However if such statements were made, conservatives would then be accused of racism. I once had a conversation about abortion with a liberal. He was reciting the tired old mantra of Bush denying blacks the right to vote in FL in 2000. I countered that if blacks and other minorities didn't have so many abortions, Gore would have easily won the White House in 2000. The liberal then called me a bigot and ended the conversation.

[cgk]

Thanks for the ping. PregnancyCenters.org is affilliated with Care Net. I give the local Pregnancy Center all of our used baby clothes and items, and they are the nicest people you've ever met. I can't afford to donate $$ as much as I would like, and they're just thrilled I donate at all. They help me carry everything in, have a little present for my own baby when I bring her, and always walk me out as well.

The last time I visited, they were sitting around this tiny wicker table writing out their own invitations to a luncheon. Their "office" is the size of a 7-11's coffee/beverage counter, and what free space there is holds toys and books for the babies they've saved when the mothers come to get essentials. They always are happy to see me bearing "gifts" and "ooh" and "ahh" over the clothes, even though they're used.

I admire them so much.

I can only imagine that PPhood's denizens would never hand write their own luncheon invitations. I imagine they outsource... to the L.A. Times, and yes, the View.

[cgk]

Pro-life/pro-baby ping. An old article, but obviously still important to read.

[nutmeg]

ping

[Qwinn]

I didn't read every comment, so I don't know if anyone noticed this (no one did on the first page, I don't think)... but...

"-- Ana Gasteyer inadvertently suggested most women are idiots: “The whole point of family planning is to give you options and alternatives. In fact the whole rollback is the fear that people don’t know that they have the option of abortion.”"

Okay, yes, this has to be one of the most insanely stupid, moronic, insulting statements I've ever heard in my LIFE. If there is a woman alive in this country who has had sex while not aware that abortion is legal... alright, I'm sorry, I simply don't have the words to describe how idiotic this statement is, I just don't.

Qwinn

[geopyg]

--She's got a point. If you kill the kid, you'll spare him the trauma of "adoption issues."---

And my son has issues with being left-handed. It would have been so much easier if ......

[nutmeg]

I saw "The View" once. It was a few days after 9/11. I kept watching that one show because I didn't believe anyone on Earth could be that stupid ( the cast of The View ) and wanted to give them a fair shake. By the end I was praying that crowds would break into the studio and slap some sense into those inane "women".

I had the same reaction the one time I watched this stupid show. Those women are like a bunch of idiotic cackling hens. And the maroons in the audience just eat it all up, applauding everything they say.

[Salvation]

Crossing Over website -- formerly Roe No More (The Story of Norma McCorvey)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Arthur McGowan]

I recall reading somewhere that Joy Behar calls herself a Catholic. Here's a perfect opportunity for a Catholic bishop to call her to account for being publicly pro-abortion.