While her guest likened pro-choice activists to murderers, Fox & Friends’ anti-choice mouthpiece, Rachel Campos-Duffy, claimed those who support abortion rights are anti-science.
Given that the Fox News network actively promotes the agenda of anti-vaxxers, the irony of Campos-Duffy’s claim is amazing!
While Fox & Friends doesn’t seem to be giving Texas’ extreme anti-abortion law the all-out coverage given to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, the coverage, once again, demonstrates the show’s commitment to those who would take away a woman’s right to choose.
After the Texas bill was passed, Lila Rose, the sweet-faced Madonna of the anti-choice movement who began her career doing anti-Planned Parenthood sting videos with the notorious James O’Keefe, appeared on Fox & Friends where, to a gushing Ainsley Earhardt, she said that the draconian law was “a wonderful day for the pro-life fight.”
Last Sunday, Rose was back on Fox & Friends where, to the gushing anti-choice activist Rachel Campos-Duffy (who has compared abortion to slavery), Rose provided more anti-choice propaganda. There was absolutely no effort to present the concerns of those who support reproductive freedom.
Campos-Duffy began by informing us that while women were marching on behalf of abortion rights that weekend, the baby who “sparked” Roe would be speaking out in an upcoming TV interview. Campos-Duffy welcomed Lila Rose, saying, “It is always great to see you.”
Without wasting a second, Rose got right to promoting the anti-choice narrative. Rose said this now-woman “is living, breathing, walking among us, a witness to the fact, a testimony to the fact that abortion kills an innocent human being and she did not become a statistic, she’s not one of the 60 million children that have been legally killed in America since that unjust Supreme Court decision…”
Rose then claimed that “Jane Roe” (whose real name is Norma Jean McCorvey) was “used by pro-abortion lawyers” when it appears that McCorvey, on her deathbed, alleged that she had been used by the well-funded, Christian anti-abortion movement.
Rose asserted that the principal issue of this story is whether the courts should “protect innocent life… or are they up to be killed.” Rose lamented that the thousands of women who marched that weekend were “marching for the right to kill someone like Shelly Thornton when she was a baby.” (No, Lila, they were marching to protect their right to determine what is best for them depending on their circumstances, some of which involve rape - something the Texas law ignores and which you folks don't mention.)
Campos-Duffy launched into the patented pro-life talking points with a comment about how, in the early 70s, ultrasounds were “grainy,” but now that the technology is vastly improved, “it’s pretty tough to deny the humanity of a fetus based on technology.” She asked Rose about the efforts of the pro-life movement "fighting for the unborn…the most voiceless, people who have no lobby other than people like you.” (ROFLMAO, the anti-choice movement is one of the most well-funded lobbies in this country – a lobby with a major “news network” on its side.) As is typical with the anti-choice movement, no concern was shown for the women who want or need an abortion and who, with laws like the one in Texas, will be forced to seek unsafe alternatives.
Campos-Duffy asked how the anti-choice movement will use technology to “fight for these babies.”
Rose declared that “the science is really clear, life begins at the moment of fertilization.” (Science makes no such claim. It is a religious and political position.) She made the misleading, but standard anti-choice talking point, that a fetal heartbeat begins at three weeks into a pregnancy and that’s the reason why the Texas law is “so powerful,” because Texas is “protecting children." She added that “the more people are educated, just like you’re saying, the more people become pro-life." (She didn’t mention that the majority of Americans support Roe.)
Lila was on a propaganda role. Her next absurd claim was that people are the victims of a “huge brainwashing” since Roe. Naturally, the evil doers are those nasty folks in academia, government, and – wait for it – the media. On a network that could be described as right-wing brainwashing, Lila said that the big lie is that fetuses are not children, “but they are and they deserve protection and that’s what we’re hoping the Supreme Court will finally acknowledge.”
Campos Duffy wrapped it all up in a nice, “pro-life” bow: “Well, the other side is looking like science deniers as they cling to their antiquated notions of fetal development.” She urged Rose to “keep up the fight.”
As the SNL “Church Lady” would say, “isn’t it special” that Rachel Campos-Duffy can balance 9 kids and a career. How does she do it? Well, given that she has what one assumes is a lucrative Fox contract and that her husband, a former GOP congressman is now a lobbyist on K St., I guess they can afford lots of hired help. Other women aren’t so lucky and that’s why keeping abortion legal is so important. Otherwise, we’re back to the back-alleys. Talk about being “antiquated…”
You can watch the anti-choice lies below, from the October 3, 2021 Fox & Friends.