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Blatant disinformation on medication abortion delivered by CNN regular [1]

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Date: 2022-07-25

Alice Stewart plays a role as a “responsible conservative” on CNN (i.e. anti-Trump, and capable of admitting that Biden won). But don’t turn your back on her, as when it comes to women’s health, the worst kind of poison and disinformation will come tumbling out. On Pamela Brown’s show yesterday (7/24), there was a discussion with Brown and April Ryan on the “Right to Contraception Act” recently passed in the House. Brown asks Stewart why only 8 Republicans could bring themselves to support the right to contraception. Now Stewart could have sidestepped the question by giving the excuse that the bill included emergency contraception, and that some Republicans abhor the thought that a zygote might be inadvertently sacrificed in the process. Or she could have said that Republicans are cowards and obstructionists, unable to admit that they’re quite fine with contraception, unable to vote for any Democratic bill. But no, instead she opted for total disinformation:

Stewart: In the details of this legislation there is language that provides for chemical abortions, and those are dangerous, they have serious medical implications.

First, there’s nothing about “chemical abortions” in the bill, it has nothing to do with medication abortions. That would be prevarication on Stewart’s part. More egregious, because politicians lie about politics all the time, there is her medical lie. Medication abortions are very safe, so Stewart is engaged in disinformation, a.k.a lying, as she surely understands the medical evidence here, and her goal is to scare listeners.

From Kaiser (KFF):

Medication abortion is a safe and highly effective method of pregnancy termination if the pills are administered at 9 weeks’ ge­­station or less, the pregnancy is terminated successfully 99.6% of the time, with a 0.4% risk of major complications, and an associated mortality rate of less than 0.001 percent (0.00064%). … On December 16, 2021, the FDA removed the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone and expanded the distribution to certified pharmacies in addition to certified clinicians. This change allows for distribution of medication abortion by mail in states that do not restrict telehealth for medication abortion. This change to the dispensing requirement came after an extensive scientific review of the safety of medication abortion as prompted by the ACLU and ACOG lawsuits.

The ACLU lawsuit which forced the FDA to approve these new regulations noted the following:

Mifeprex is safe. As the FDA concluded in March 2016, serious adverse events following Mifeprex use are “exceedingly rare,” and “the numbers of these adverse events appear to be stable or decreased over time.” Indeed, the risks associated with Mifeprex are lower than those of many other common medications, such as Viagra® or anticoagulants (blood thinners). Mifeprex use is also far safer than continuing a pregnancy: the risk of associated fatality is fourteen times greater for a woman who carries a pregnancy to term than for a woman who uses Mifeprex.

Viagra you say?

Now, it is a longstanding dream that someone, somewhere, some time will at some point shout out in response to such blatant misinformation, “That is a lie, and you are a liar.” But no, we can’t give a direct challenge to our contributors, can we. April Ryan, who is capable of responding to such things, did not jump on it. Thankfully, Pamela Brown had the appropriate response, that she quietly slipped in at the end:

The FDA said that the abortion pill is safe and effective, and when you look at the rate of adverse effects, it's very low statistically compared with all the women who've taken the pill.

To which Stewart, caught lying, could only take refuge in —“It's low but it's not foolproof.” And the piece quickly ended. Stewart’s mission of delivering two lies — a political lie that it was part of the bill, and the medical lie, to scare women, that the drugs are “dangerous” — having been accomplished.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/25/2112526/-Blatant-disinformation-on-medication-abortion-delivered-by-CNN-regular

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