For years, pro-lifers have insisted that abortion is never medically necessary, arguing that the baby can be delivered preterm — instead of being aborted — in such emergency cases where the pregnant person’s life is threatened, but Facebook disagrees.
Facebook sought over the weekend to restrict access to pages run by LiveAction and its president, Lila Rose, after labeling as “false” and “inaccurate” their claim that abortion is never medically necessary, prompting Ms. Rose to accuse Facebook of censorship and bias.
“This is clear evidence of bias and discrimination against our over three million strong Facebook community members and an outrageous act of censorship on the part of Facebook,” Ms. Rose said in a statement.
Facebook posted a “Science Feedback Fact-Check,” reviewed by two obstetrician-gynecologists, which said that “certain life-threatening conditions during pregnancy can make abortion medically necessary in order to save the mother’s life.”
“Preserving both the life of the mother and child by inducing early delivery, as the video suggests, is only possible if the fetus’ gestational age is advanced enough that it stands a chance of survival outside the womb,” the Facebook statement said. “As this is not always the case, early delivery is not always a suitable alternative to abortion.”
Ms. Rose said the fact-check was biased — both of the OB-GYNs who reviewed the statement are pro-choice advocates — and produced statements Saturday from two other doctors backing up her claim.
“These fact-checkers need to be fact-checked,” said Dr. Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists. “They are in error to claim that elective abortion is medically necessary to save the life of the mother. They did not cite even one example where an abortion, the intentional killing of a living child in utero, would be superior to delivering that child.”
In such cases, the baby may not be old enough to survive outside the womb, but the posts by LiveAction and Ms. Rose made that clear, saying that an early delivery only offers the preterm baby a “fighting chance.”
“An early-term delivery, a preterm delivery, is not an abortion,” Ms. Rose said on “Fox & Friends.”
Conservatives have weighed in on LiveAction’s behalf.
Republican National Committeewoman Harmeet K. Dhillon called Facebook’s decision “absolutely sick and evil,” while the Susan B. Anthony List called it “utterly unacceptable” and Radiance Foundation’s Ryan Bomberger said it was “bogus censorship.”
In its notice giving LiveAction a “false rating,” Facebook said that it “reduces the distribution of misleading content while also showing additional reporting on the same topic.”
In June, LiveAction said its account had been banned by Pinterest for providing “misinformation” and “harmful content.” A Pinterest whistleblower reportedly was fired after turning over documents to Project Veritas showing that LiveAction had been placed on a list of blocked pornography sites.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.