Rebecca Solnit writes:

Anti-abortion laws are built on anti-abortion lies. Lies about things like who has abortions, how abortions work, how women’s bodies work and how fetuses develop. The lies pave the way for the laws.

There are the old lies, like the ones suggesting that the women having abortions are careless hussies (51% of abortions are to women who were using contraception; 59% are to women who are already mothers; 75% are to poor and low-income women). Lately, there’s a huge new lie making the rounds, that women and doctors are conspiring to kill babies at birth and calling it abortion. This is a lie that encourages conservatives to regard pregnant women and medical caregivers as potential ruthless killers who should be hemmed in with yet more laws targeting them. While a lot of older abortion lies were distortions and exaggerations, this one is a complete and dangerous fabrication.

At a late April rally in Wisconsin, Donald Trump said: “The baby is born. The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby. They wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.” (Apparently the closest thing to this far-fetched scenario is when babies are born with fatal problems and, at the discretion of the parents, receive palliative care rather than often tortuous interventions that will delay their inevitable death.) Fox host Ainsley Earhardt amplified the lie, saying :“I think it backfired on those Democrats when they all said you can have an abortion even after the baby is born or kill the baby after the baby is born.” [Continue reading…]