By Dave Andrusko

When a relentlessly pro-abortion reporter writes a story with a headline such as “More Second-Trimester Abortions Occurred Under Texas Law: Exclusive,” you know two things for certain.

First–obviously–the post is intended to justify the Supreme Court’s decision last month to gut portions of the pro-life 2013 Texas law.

Second, that nine chances out of ten, the whole story is phony–or, if you are willing to suspend disbelief, a lapse in reporting.

And, sure enough, both are true.

What is the primary thrust of Irin Carmon’s piece at NBC News? First paragraph says it all:

Texas passed its 2013 omnibus abortion bill in the name of protecting women’s health — a rationale roundly rejected by the Supreme Court last month. Now, newly released data shows the law may have actually had the opposite effect, putting women at greater risk by increasing the number of later abortions.

So, if we are to believe Ms. Carmon, the law that required that abortion facilities meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers and mandated that abortionists have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital was not only “roundly rejected by the Supreme Court,” it did not protect pregnant women and, in fact, increased their risks by leading to more “later abortions.”

How much? According to Carmon, in 2014, “the first full year the law was in effect,” the number of later abortions jumped from 4,814 in 2013 to 6,117– a whopping 27% .

True? Of course not. Others will extend them the benefit of the doubt. I don’t. I see it as the usual pro-abortion slight-of-hand and total disregard for what the data actually say.

Carmon’s story is grossly misleading, beginning with the headline.

Here’s the key as explained by Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, who heads NRLC’s Department of Education and Research.

The story says “a preliminary review of statistics released by the Department of State Health Services” tracked abortions “after 12 weeks.” But if you look at the actual data and do the math, you will see that the abortions from week 13 on total 3,109, not 6,117.

Where does the 6,117 figure come from? This comes from someone adding the 3,008 abortions for weeks 11-12 to the ones from 13 weeks and later.

Generally, people characterize abortions at 11-12 weeks as first trimester, and those after 13 weeks as second trimester. Third trimester would be 26 weeks up until birth.

The calculation the article gives for 2013 does follow this pattern, giving 4,814 abortions for weeks 13 forward. It does not repeat the mistake by adding another 4,210 abortions that were performed that year at 11-12 weeks.

When comparing the actual figures for abortions given by the Texas Department of State Health Service for 13 weeks on, 4,814 for 2013 versus 3,109 for 2014, the number of abortions that took place from 13 weeks on decreased 35% in 2014, rather than increased 27%, over 2013.

[You can find the tables for this information at www.dshs.texas.gov/chs/vstat/vs14/t33.aspx (2014) and at www.dshs.texas.gov/chs/vstat/vs13/t33.aspx (2013).]

These people really are shameless.