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Thursday, September 03, 2020

Journalism on the blink

In another example of what passes for journalism, William Cummings of USA Today wrote that “Sen. Ted Cruz came under fire after saying Wednesday on social media that pregnancy is not ‘life-threatening’ when the U.S. has the highest maternal death rate out of the world’s developed nations.” What Cruz actually said is that “Pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness, and the abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease. Make no mistake, Mifeprex is a dangerous pill. That’s why 20 of my Republican colleagues and I are urging @US_FDA to classify it as such.”

Senator Cruz made no claim that women do not die from complications of pregnancy. Rather he said that pregnancy  is not a life-threatening illness. Pregnancy is not an illness. Mifeprex is not a drug that cures an illness. Mifeprex is a drug that, when it works as intended, is life-threatening to unborn babies.

[Note, 7:30 am, 04 Sept 2020. Possibly Cummings was called out for his duplicity. Regardless, the article this morning includes the word illness in the first sentence (with a few other changes). “Sen. Ted Cruz came under fire from abortion-rights proponents after saying Wednesday on social media that pregnancy is not a ‘life-threatening illness’ when the U.S. has the highest maternal death rate out of the world's developed nations.”

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