In the reverse reality show of Fox News, “survivors” aren’t a bunch of folks who are fighting it out on a tropical island in order to win $1 million. Rather, they’re people who claim that they escaped the evil machinations of an abortionist and lived to tell the tale on Fox & Friends – twice!
On Sunday’s Fox & Friends, host Jedidiah Bila framed the anti-choice propaganda with the now patented anti-abortion tropes being pimped by Fox News on an almost daily basis – including the newest, most preposterous, and most dangerous myth of the Democrats' support for “infanticide”: “Controversial legislation to ease restrictions on late-term abortions is at the center of a fierce nation-wide debate.”
Keeping to Fox’s “pro-life” advocacy, Bila described New York’s “sweeping law” as “allowing abortions up until the baby’s due date.” She noted that Virginia Democrats are “under fire” for “comments surrounding a similar bill pushing post-birth abortion or infanticide.” (BIG FAT FOX LIE - NO Virginia bill legalizes “infanticide.”)
After this piece of right-wing performance art, Bila breathlessly informed us that her guests are “abortion survivors” whose stories “captivated” her.
The political theater continued as the survivors, Melissa Ohden (no stranger to Fox News), Josiah Presley, and Claire Culwell, told their sad – and totally unverified - tales of being the products of botched abortions.
Ohden wove quite the story about her birth mother and the circumstances of the botched abortion which, according to Ohden, is the cause of her health problems. Bila exclaimed, “Wow!”
Josiah Presley, the adopted son of an Oklahoma pastor, told a story about how he survived a “D&C” abortion at two months and was born later– a story told to him by his adoptive parents. Another “wow” from Bila who said these “are miracle stories.”
The third “survivor,” Claire Culwell, informed us that though her twin was aborted, she survived and was carried full term because her mother couldn’t get a late-term abortion. Culwell attributed her birth defects to the failed abortion.
Bila gushed, "These are such amazing stories … It probably inspires quite a bit of faith in some. It’s a miracle to many.”
She asked the “survivors” about their reactions to politicians who are pushing “very late-term” abortions in which the “babies” have “no rights.” She continued to whine about the “complete dehumanization of the process” and asked the crew how they feel listening to talk saying, “these babies have no rights.”
Ohden whined about how fetuses are "human beings whose lives are being affected” and “the more Democrats introduce this kind of legislation through the third trimester, the greater the likelihood is gonna be that children like us survive abortions.”
Bila referenced Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s scandal which, for her, isn’t about racial insensitivity but his comments about late-term abortion. She played video of the quote (whole quote here), but didn’t provide the context of the remarks which were about treatment of a child that is born with serious birth defects. She claimed that “many” consider these remarks to be about “the murder of a now-born child."
Presley lamented legal abortions and advocated for “personhood” laws which define life as beginning at conception. Culwell said she wants politicians to recognize their humanity. Bila called the stories “amazing.”
On Monday's Fox & Friends, the survivors did an encore performance for Ainsley Earhardt who, literally, read from the same script and played the same video while the “survivors” told the same stories as they did on Sunday’s show. Earhardt said a lot of “wows” and thanked God that their lives “were spared.” The group, all devout Christians, said that they have forgiven their birth mothers. Earhardt told them, “God has huge plans for y’all."
So for two days in a row, the survivors told tales that were not verified. The disclosure of the botched abortions (or details of any abortions) would be a violation of confidentially. All three survivors are professional anti-choice advocates. The chances of a fetus surviving an abortion are slim to none. But rather than question the testimony, Bila and Earhardt were enthralled by the “miracle.’
Unlike TV’s “Survivor,” these professional “abortion survivors,” don’t need to “outwit, outplay, and outlast.” All they need is a place to tell their tall tales and they will never be voted off the island!
Check out Fox & Friends from Sunday, February 10 and Monday, February 11, 2019
The lies about abortion procedures are frankly obscene. In reality 99% of these procedures are handled very early in pregnancy, and that is temporarily still legal throughout the US. After the Supreme Court rules on June Medical Services within the next year, that will likely no longer be the case, as Red States will almost certainly be given the latitude to restrict and ban abortion procedures at will. The “Late Term” procedures discussed in New York and Virginia were nothing about “infanticide” and the trolls at Fox News are well aware of this fact. The procedures in question have to do with a pregnancy that goes wrong near the end, or where other serious issues have developed that compromise the situation. The rule changes have already been summarized as simply making it more reasonable and humane for a woman to make a difficult decision with her doctor rather than have angry Right Wingers try to shame her into doing something even worse.
For every one of these questionable stories about “abortion survivors”, there are plenty of stories about young women forced to give birth to babies who could not survive outside the womb, simply because angry Right Wingers would not allow them to end the pregnancy before the fetus was forced into that situation. One significant example was a high-school student who was raped by a classmate and who could not bring herself to discuss this with anyone or even acknowledge what had happened to her until her pregnancy was well along. Given her ability to hide herself (and her unhappy mental state), nobody realized she was pregnant until a lot later than normal. She was told she would be forced to give birth to her rapist’s child – and that the tests were showing that the resulting baby would be born blind, deaf and without the ability to survive very long. She went through a traumatic scenario where she indeed gave birth to a baby who proceeded to suffer for about a year, with both the mother and baby in terrible pain, until the baby finally died. The woman was thus scarred twice – first by the rape and then by the pregnancy and resulting situation caused by the rape, because she was not given the ability to terminate the suffering. This is a story that Fox News doesn’t want people to hear, and there are many, many more just like it.
The fact that the Right Wing would play games like this and sneer at women in this kind of situation is, again, obscene. I would say that the people at Fox News and on AM radio fomenting these lies should be ashamed of themselves, but it would appear that they have no shame.
Thanks for your invaluable work, dear Ellen. Most appreciated.
They’ve become so bad that even I can’t watch more than five minutes without wanting to throw spaghetti at the TV. They’re no longer the least bit funny.