{"id":223088,"date":"2020-05-06T10:45:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T15:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=223088"},"modified":"2024-09-20T12:19:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T17:19:21","slug":"fact-check-politicians-support-unfettered-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fact-check-politicians-support-unfettered-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact checking the fact checkers: Yes, some politicians support unfettered abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Early in March, President Trump claimed that members of the Democratic Party overwhelmingly support abortion<\/a> — including late-term abortion. Almost two months later, the Washington Post weighed in with its own fact-check; the only problem is, it was strangely short on the actual facts.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post quoted Trump<\/a> as saying, “Virtually every Democrat candidate has declared their unlimited support for extreme late-term abortion, ripping babies straight from the mother\u2019s womb, right up until the very moment of birth.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Salvador Rizzo, serving as the paper’s fact-checker, called this claim “so visceral and deceptive” that it deserved its own dedicated debunking. Yet it appears Rizzo missed some things.<\/p>\n

The so-called “rarity” of late-term abortion<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Most abortions are performed in the earlier stages of pregnancy,” he wrote. “About 1 percent happen after the fetus reaches the point of viability. In short, the president is describing something that rarely happens and that no Democrat is calling for anyway.”\u00a0It is true that statistically, late-term abortions are relatively rare, and the CDC does state that about 1 percent of abortions<\/a> occur past past 21 weeks. However, that still means that over 6,000 abortions — at the very least<\/em>, as not every state reports data to the CDC for abortion surveillance — are committed every year in the United States.<\/p>\n

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, meanwhile, has its own abortion fact sheet<\/a>, in which it reports that 10% of all abortion facilities commit abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and likewise reported that approximately 1 percent of abortions are committed after 21 weeks. Guttmacher, in another article<\/a>, also argued that there should be greater access to abortion, at “all stages” of pregnancy.<\/p>\n

So what does Rizzo’s claim about the rarity<\/em> of late-term abortion have to do with Trump’s original statement? Nothing.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Abortionists admit that third trimester abortions are done on healthy babies<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Unlimited support” for abortion<\/strong><\/p>\n

While no politician is outright promoting abortion when a woman is 40 weeks pregnant, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates<\/a>\u00a0rejected restrictions on abortion, including gestational limits. While the Democratic Party hasn’t yet released its 2020 official party platform, the\u00a02016 platform<\/a> called for taxpayer funding of abortion, and opposed all restrictions on abortion.<\/p>\n

Rizzo cited Katie L. Watson, a professor at Northwestern University\u2019s Feinberg School of Medicine, who claimed, “‘Abortion until the moment of birth’ does not exist \u2014 it\u2019s a boogeyman abortion opponents have created to frighten voters and derail rational conversation about constitutional rights,\u201d Watson wrote to the Washington Post. \u201cNobody \u2018supports\u2019 it, and nobody does it. No patient ever asks a physician to end her pregnancy \u2018the moment before birth,\u2019 and no physician would agree to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the abortionists themselves have said otherwise. Abortionist Leah Torres recently\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0that if a supposed pro-choice person believes that an abortion at eight months is unjustified, then that person isn’t “really” pro-choice. And as Live Action News has previously reported<\/a>, approximately 20 percent<\/em> of abortionists commit abortions after 20 weeks, when a baby can survive outside the womb.<\/p>\n

The documentary “After Tiller,”\u00a0a Sundance Film Festival darling,\u00a0celebrated four late-term abortionists<\/a>. One was LeRoy Carhart<\/a>, who has killed at least two of his patients, and butchered countless more. One of the women he killed, Jennifer Morbelli, was 33 weeks pregnant<\/strong> at the time of her abortion. Another late-term abortionist, Curtis Boyd, recently sent shockwaves across the internet when video surfaced of him testifying during a deposition that there is no set limit<\/a>\u00a0of how late he is willing to commit abortions; staffers at his abortion facility, Southwestern Women’s Options, have been recorded\u00a0agreeing to commit a 30-week abortion<\/a> for no reason other than the mother’s reported “stress.”<\/p>\n

Multiple abortionists have also admitted<\/a> that most third trimester and late-term abortions are committed on healthy preborn children.<\/p>\n

“Ripped” from the womb<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rizzo further claims it’s an exaggeration to say that preborn babies in late-term abortions are “ripped” from their mothers’ wombs. But sadly, late-term abortion is indeed this brutal.<\/p>\n