By Dave Andrusko
Glenn Kessler is the Washington Post’s Fact Checker who specializes in “fact checking” Republicans. In today’s paper, he fact checks “13 claims” Republicans made last night at the opening session of the three day Republican National Committee. (One was made on Fox News.) Of course, to Kessler, all are false, or misleading, or “lack context.”
We’re going to fact check the Fact Checker on just one assertion because it is a common diversionary tactic employed by pro-abortionists. It’s a statement that Sen. J.D. Vance, pro-life former President Donald Trump’s choice to be his vice president, said in an interview with Fox News:
“Now the Democrats are saying taxpayer-funded [abortions] up until the moment of birth. Unlimited. That’s ridiculous.”
Kessler writes
This is a common Republican talking point — that Democrats support nationwide abortion on demand up until the moment of birth. The implication is that late-term abortions are common — and that they are routinely accepted by Democrats.
The reality, according to federal and state data, is that abortions past the point of viability are extremely rare. When they do happen, they often involve painful emotional and even moral decisions.
About two-thirds of abortions occur at eight weeks of pregnancy or earlier, and nearly 90 percent take place in the first 12 weeks, or within most definitions of the first trimester, according to estimates by the Guttmacher Institute, which favors abortion rights. About 5.5 percent of abortions take place after 15 weeks, with just 1.3 percent at 21 weeks or longer.
No, that last sentence doesn’t suggest abortion up until the birth are “common.” But what does “just 1.3 percent at 21 weeks or longer” suggest? Practically nothing, right
Guttmacher’s number of abortions for 2019, the year Kessler reference, was 862,320. “Just 1.3 percent” is 11,210. Those are huge babies either poisoned or torn apart. But I’m sure to Kessler, 11,210 is nothing to get worked up about.
What about the first two assertions?
This is a common Republican talking point — that Democrats support nationwide abortion on demand up until the moment of birth.
They don’t?! Director of Communications Laura Echevarria explains that the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) is not new and supported by all Democrats.
First introduced in 2013, the legislation goes way beyond “codifying Roe v. Wade.” The WHPA would
prevent any protective legislation from being passed in states, even those previously upheld by the Supreme Court while Roe was in effect. (This includes informed consent, parental notification laws, laws requiring an ultrasound before an abortion, etc.).
Echavarria notes that “Even the pro-abortion National Women’s Law Center acknowledges that
WHPA creates a federal statutory right for health care providers to provide abortion care, and a corresponding right for patients to receive that care without medically unnecessary bans, restrictions, or limitations that treat abortion differently from other medical care.
This would include any limitations on abortions after viability.
Kessler’s second part
The implication is that late-term abortions are common — and that they are routinely accepted by Democrats
Let’s first elaborate on the “common” argument. 1.3 % “is only an estimate based on incomplete data.” Echevarria writes. “Abortion reporting in the United States is inconsistent and largely voluntary. Abortions late in pregnancy are underreported. For example, the largest state in the country, California, does not provide the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with any abortion data.”
In other words, the number of late-term abortions is likely much higher.
Do Democrats routinely accept late-term abortion?
Democrats refuse to be pinned down–to accept any limitation on abortion. In fact, you can’t even get them to provide medical care to abortion survivors!
Kessler’s last point:
The reality, according to federal and state data, is that abortions past the point of viability are extremely rare. When they do happen, they often involve painful emotional and even moral decisions.
The Atlantic profile of late-term abortion specialist Warren Hern, written by staffer Elaine Godfrey, is headlined tellingly “The Abortion Absolutist.” Commenting on The Atlantic profile, Peter Laffin of the Washington Examiner writes
Hern admitted that at least half of the late-term abortions he’s performed over the past half-century were elective, meaning that there was no underlying medical condition in the baby or the mother. Abortion advocates regularly assure the public that late-term abortions of this sort are exceedingly rare, if existent at all. But here we have it from the horse’s mouth. Who knows how many thousands of these abortions Hern has performed? Again, he’s been doing this for half a century.
Try again, Glenn Kessler. Who knows, eventually you may get it right.