A PolitiFact fact check published April 5, 2022 resulted in justified pushback on social media. Zebra Fact Check summarized the objections in the form of a correction request, submitted on April 11, 2022. On April 12, 2022 we followed up our first email with one correcting a mistake in our correction request.
We will update this item if and when we note PolitiFact either corrects its fact check or otherwise addresses our correction request.
Dear Truth-O-Meter,
A PolitiFact fact check from April 5, 2022 fails to support its “False” rating with either evidence or logic.
The fact check correctly says:
Colorado’s law protects the right to have an abortion and does not make distinctions or regulations around a time or stage during pregnancy.
The sentence rules out the possibility of a “False” rating unless PolitiFact produces evidence of some type of restriction, such as defining the third trimester to exclude moments before birth at 40 weeks or less. Otherwise, the third trimester includes weeks 28 through 40 right up until the moment of birth.
The fact check offers no such evidence and doesn’t even make any clear attempt to offer evidence. The concluding paragraphs seem to encourage readers to believe that if late-term abortion procedures are rare then they are not legal.
But that doesn’t follow.
Look:
Our ruling
A screenshot of a tweet shared on Facebook claimed: “Colorado Governor Jared Polis has just signed into law a bill legalizing abortions through all nine months, up until the moment of birth.”
Colorado’s new law codifies existing protections around an individual’s right to use or refuse contraceptives, continue with a pregnancy and give birth, or to have an abortion.
Abortions that occur later in a pregnancy — at 21 weeks gestation or later — are rare.
We rate this claim False.
There’s nothing in the summary to justify the ruling. That’s not surprising, because the body of the fact check shares the same failure.
Why didn’t PolitiFact interview a legal expert?
The text of the law seems to allow abortion up until the very moment before pregancy [sic]. It’s not a legal barrier if doctors have yet to devise a method for aborting in that time frame. That is a technological barrier.
Please make an appropriate correction in accord with your commitment to open and honest corrections.
I have a correction of my own. “Birth” was intended where I typed “pregnancy.” Hopefully my mistake will not deter the correction process at PolitiFact.
Wrong:
The text of the law seems to allow abortion up until the very moment before pregancy. It’s not a legal barrier if doctors have yet to devise a method for aborting in that time frame. That is a technological barrier.
Right:
The text of the law seems to allow abortion up until the very moment before birth. It’s not a legal barrier if doctors have yet to devise a method for aborting in that time frame. That is a technological barrier.
Cheers.