{"id":265540,"date":"2022-04-06T06:38:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T11:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=265540"},"modified":"2024-09-20T12:18:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T17:18:20","slug":"fact-checking-maryland-bill-infanticide-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fact-checking-maryland-bill-infanticide-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact-checking the fact checkers: Maryland bill could protect infanticide despite media claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maryland media outlet WUSA9 was not exactly accurate when it claimed<\/a> a Live Action Instagram post<\/a>\u00a0stating that a Maryland abortion bill could allow for infanticide was “misleading.”\u00a0Context is everything, and the media outlet is knowingly suggesting the meme misrepresented the strict language in the original bill. However, Live Action’s March 17 post,\u00a0which read, “Horrific: This new Maryland law would allow babies to be killed up to 28 days after birth,” was published two days after<\/em> the bill was allegedly quietly amended on March 15 due to its controversial language.<\/p>\n

“The provision in question originally read, ‘This section may not be construed to authorize any form of investigation or penalty for a person\u2026 experiencing\u2026 perinatal death related to a failure to act\u2026’ A new amendment changes this to ‘\u2026 experiencing \u2026perinatal death related to an act or omission during the pregnancy.’ This clarifies the bill to only cover deaths related to issues during pregnancy,”\u00a0WUSA9’s written\u00a0Verify<\/em> fact check stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The problem is that the March 15\u00a0amendment<\/a> referred to by WUSA9 had not yet appeared on the state\u00a0House website<\/a> by April 1, and furthermore, the transcript for the March 15 Zoom meeting<\/a> shows no mention of the amendment being proposed. The document WUSA9 uploaded appears to indicate that the amendment will be added at a future date, stating<\/a>, “To be offered in the Health and Government Operations Committee.” The Senate version<\/a> (SB669) also fails to show any current amendments. WUSA9 gave no indication when the amendment was “proposed” or whether it passed.<\/p>\n