We’ve written in the fairly recent past about the way fact checkers struggle with equivocation on the term “abortion.” PolitiFact’s Nov. 11, 2024 abortion-related fact check continued that trend.
PolitiFact fact-checked a claim on Threads saying “Abortion is never medically necessary in the last trimester. Literally never. They just do a C-section.” PolitiFact offered the following definition of abortion:
An abortion is a medical intervention designed to terminate a pregnancy before birth.
Certainly a pregnancy ends if the fetus dies before birth. But the definition does not say “terminate a fetus before birth.” One may imagine the transplantation of a fetus from one womb to another, in which case PolitiFact apparently says the original host had an abortion leading to the pregnancy of the second host.
And then one of PolitiFact’s cited experts, Dr. Deborah Bartz, has to toss a spanner in the works:
"If, for example, preeclampsia develops in the third trimester and the pregnant person's high blood pressures become life threatening, a delivery (and thus, abortion delivery) of a nonviable fetus is needed. If this induced delivery results in death, it is considered an abortion," Bartz said.
Bartz strayed from PolitiFact’s definition. If abortion is a medical intervention designed to terminate a pregnancy before birth, how can the live delivery of a fetus that dies during birth or later count as an abortion?
It can’t. And when fact checkers don’t notice a fairly obvious self-contradiction like this in the middle of their work, credibility suffers.
How about the time PolitiFact rated “False” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ claim about post-birth abortions? The same PolitiFact fact checker, Samantha Putterman, had this to say way back then (July 2023, bold emphasis added):
Killing an infant after birth is infanticide and is illegal in all 50 states. Situations resulting in a fetal death in the third trimester are exceedingly rare, and involve emergencies such as fetal anomalies or life-threatening medical emergencies affecting the mother.
Sometimes, labor is induced, followed by palliative care, for babies with very short life expectancies. Some families choose this option when faced with life-threatening diagnoses that often limit their babies’ post-birth survival to just minutes or days after delivery, experts said.
Apparently even if third trimester abortions are “exceedingly rare” there’s no “Half True” or “Mostly False” option if someone claims it literally never happens. As if we needed another reminder that PolitiFact’s “Truth-O-Meter” ratings are exercises in subjectivity.
As for the central issue of the fact check, PolitiFact ruled it “False” that abortions are never medically necessary in the third trimester. We found one example convincing, where an abortion might save the life of one conjoined twin.