A Four Pinocchio claim from Planned ParenthoodThe president of Planned Parenthood has claimed repeatedly that "thousands of women" died every year from botched abortions before...
| |  | | Democracy Dies in Darkness | | | | | | | | | | The truth behind the rhetoric | | | | | | A Four Pinocchio claim from Planned Parenthood The president of Planned Parenthood has claimed repeatedly that "thousands of women" died every year from botched abortions before 1973, when the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade. When we delved into the data, what we found was surprising. The claim from Dr. Leana Wen is based on decades-old studies that, upon close inspection, rely on guesswork more than science. Planned Parenthood referred us to a policy statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG): "It is estimated that before 1973, 1.2 million U.S. women resorted to illegal abortion each year and that unsafe abortions caused as many as 5,000 annual deaths." Where does that estimate come from? ACOG sent us several studies, but none of them included the 5,000 estimate. To support Wen's claim, Planned Parenthood then sent us citations that included a study from 1936 — before antibiotics were invented and made abortion less risky. The CDC began collecting data on abortion mortality in 1972, the year before Roe was decided. In 1972, the number of deaths in the United States from legal abortions was 24 and from illegal abortions 39, according to the CDC. There is, of course, a health risk from botched abortions. But the issue here is passing off a hunch as science. Wen is a doctor, and the ACOG is made up of doctors. We gave Four Pinocchios to Wen and the ACOG for a baldly unscientific claim. |  | | Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here, for the weekly newsletter. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we'll check it out. We read your report, Robert Mueller In a swan-song appearance in front of the cameras, special counsel Robert Mueller had some advice for anyone with lingering questions about President Trump, Russia, obstruction of justice and that whole can of worms. "It is important that the office's written work speak for itself." "We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself." "The report is my testimony." The Mueller report unfolds as a gripping narrative in plain English, spanning 448 pages. But it's also a paradoxical document: laying out substantial evidence that Trump broke the law by obstructing the special counsel's investigation, but declining to reach a decision on whether or not to bring charges. Much of that was due to an internal Justice Department policy — never endorsed by the Supreme Court — that the president is so powerful and indispensable he cannot be indicted while in office. But Mueller had other reasons, too. We counted six of them in total. And we devised a sort of road map for readers wondering what to make of Mueller's book-length decision not to decide. | | | How's this for a fact check? Boris Johnson, the Brexit-cheering politician in the running to become the next British prime minister, is headed to court. The allegation? Official misconduct for false and misleading claims. "Johnson, who was the high-profile face of the Leave campaign, is accused of falsely claiming that Britain's membership of the European Union cost £350 million ($442 million) a week," CNN reported. "The claim was plastered on the side of a bus that toured Britain during the tightly fought campaign that resulted in a 52% vote in favor of the UK leaving the EU." A judge has allowed the case against Johnson to proceed. The complaint was filed by a "crowdfunded private prosecutor" — another thing that sets the United Kingdom apart from the United States. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. | | | Recommended for you | | |  | | | Get The Trailer newsletter | | News and insight on political campaigns around the country, from David Weigel. 435 districts. 50 states. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings. | | Sign Up » | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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