{"id":79188,"date":"2015-11-05T11:40:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T16:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=79188"},"modified":"2015-11-05T11:04:30","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T16:04:30","slug":"rhrcs-lies-show-which-side-of-abortion-debate-has-the-high-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/rhrcs-lies-show-which-side-of-abortion-debate-has-the-high-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion supporters lie about lying, prove pro-lifers have the high ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you have friends open to the pro-life movement but still sitting on the fence, this may help. Ask them to, just for a moment, set aside whatever philosophical or religious qualms they might have about personhood, or whatever fears they may have about prohibiting abortion, and just ask them one question: if one side of the issue cannot make its case without lying about the other, isn\u2019t that an indication that it\u2019s the wrong side?<\/p>\n

A perfect example of that comes to us today from University of California Professor Carole Joffe at RH Reality Check, who\u00a0has<\/span>\u00a0authored\u00a0an inexcusably hypocritical article<\/a> on a \u201ccase study of just how many blatant falsehoods voters are willing to overlook.\u201d The alleged liar she has in mind? Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina…<\/p>\n

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Carly Fiorina tells lies. We have witnessed this during both of the prime-time Republican presidential debates in which she has appeared. In her zeal to demonize Planned Parenthood during the first debate, she described a gory scene purportedly included in one of the infamous doctored videos released by anti-abortionists\u2014a scene that simply does not exist, as numerous journalists, conservatives among them, have pointed out [\u2026] her false statements are instantly disprovable in ways that people can readily understand: Either the video showed the disputed scene or it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Just one problem, Prof: the video did.<\/p>\n

Fiorina\u2019s exact words<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Anyone who has watched this video tape, I dare, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus, on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The facts are<\/a> that the footage in the video was for illustrative purposes and not the same baby StemExpress whistleblower Holly O\u2019Donnell witnessed, but was from an intact-delivery abortion and accurately depicted the alleged event, as did Fiorina\u2019s description of the horrifying practice. A super PAC ad<\/a> juxtaposing her words with the scene helpfully makes this clear:<\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Yhn0DdH8M-0&w=560&h=315]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to say Fiorina wasn\u2019t totally precise in speaking from memory, but quite another to claim the scene \u201csimply does not exist.\u201d It does. You can watch it right there. Now, abortion defenders could dispute the validity of O\u2019Donnell\u2019s claims\u2014although even if they succeeded, it wouldn\u2019t reflect on Fiorina\u2019s accurate, good-faith description of what she<\/em> saw.<\/p>\n

Funny, though, they don\u2019t seem interested in that\u2026 which further illustrates the original point that if you can\u2019t defend your position honestly, then maybe your position isn\u2019t worth defending.<\/p>\n

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Mitt Romney, during his presidential campaign, also used the 92 percent statistic cited above. Eventually, though, he ceased to do so when shown the evidence that it was incorrect. Yet Fiorina, when offered the same opportunity to retract, angrily denounced the CNN reporter who was interviewing her, as seen in this testy exchange. The candidate also took the opportunity in that interview to once again restate the \u201ctruth\u201d of her claim about the Planned Parenthood video.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For the record, Fiorina actually admitted<\/a> she was wrong about the 92% number two days before Joffe\u2019s piece was published, precisely the sort of detail she would call Live Action dishonest for omitting. And as far as the video is concerned, what really angers Joffe is not that Fiorina doubled down on her \u201clie,\u201d but that she refused to be intimidated by her foes\u2019 lies.<\/p>\n

As the saying goes, you know you\u2019re over the target when you start taking flak, so the persistence with which platforms like RHRC are trying to demonize Fiorina over this means they know how devastating the truth is.<\/p>\n

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With respect to her initial rise in the polls after the debate in which she made false claims about the Planned Parenthood video, one could argue that lying, rather than being a problem for her, proved rather to be an advantage in the short term, given that the Republican base has been whipped into a frenzy of hatred of that organization.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes, because really, what\u2019s the big deal about people admitting<\/a> \u201cit\u2019s violence, it\u2019s a person, it\u2019s killing\u201d but doing it anyway, laughing<\/a> about the eyeball of a kid someone just killed falling into their lap, joking<\/a> about shipping babies\u2019 severed heads<\/em> in the mail, the sight<\/a> of piles of torn-off body parts, casual talk<\/a> of human organs\u2019 monetary value, or clear indications<\/a> of multiple federal crimes?<\/p>\n

It’s<\/a> not<\/a> just<\/a> anti-abortion Republicans who are \u201cwhipped into a frenzy of hatred\u201d over such obvious evil; if anything, the real scandal is how could anyone who thinks of themselves as compassionate and humane not<\/em> be. The day basic human decency can no longer cross party lines or trump partisan affiliation is the day it\u2019ll be time to pack it in as a society.<\/p>\n

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The surreal degree to which lying about reproductive matters became routine is embodied by former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl\u2019s concession that his claim that 90 percent of Planned Parenthood\u2019s services are abortion (the correct figure is 3 percent) was \u201cnot intended to be a factually based statement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kyl\u2019s response was inexcusable, but him being guilty doesn\u2019t make Joffe or Planned Parenthood innocent. As researcher Michael New pointed out<\/a> at the time, 98% of Planned Parenthood\u2019s services to pregnant women<\/em>, if not to women overall, were indeed abortion services.<\/p>\n

And Joffe\u2019s repetition of the thoroughly-discredited 3% figure<\/a>\u2014which relies on unbundling items that are part of<\/em> a service and counting them as entirely separate<\/em> services, obscures the fact that abortion brings in a third of PP\u2019s revenue, and has suspiciously remained at 3% since 1995<\/em>\u2014undermines her posturing as an earnest truth-teller sincerely offended by the dishonesty around her.<\/p>\n

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Yet I believe that nationally, most people do not respect those who habitually lie and do not want them as their leaders[.]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Finally, we agree on something. But a real overview of honesty in the abortion debate is a can Professor Joffe should regret opening:<\/p>\n