A new Media Matters study finds that Fox News dominates the abortion debate, providing 94% of network television coverage about the topic. Even more troubling, the study emphasizes that other news channels have failed in their role as fact checkers and investigators. CNN and MSNBC often echo the misstatements Fox makes about abortion, allow Fox to set the tone of the broader abortion debate.
Media Dominated by Abortion Lies
The year-long Media Matters analysis studied evening cable news programs to assess how they covered abortion. They found that Fox News aired 94% of the three major networks’ coverage of the four most common abortion-related topics.
Eighty-five percent of what Fox aired was wrong.
CNN and MSNBC often repeated Fox’s lies, or aired responses that lent credibility to Fox’s coverage. Sixty-seven percent of CNN’s abortion coverage was wrong. So too was 40% of MSNBC’s abortion coverage. Overall, 83% of abortion-related statements aired on all three networks were inaccurate.
The networks were especially likely to air lies about abortion “extremism.” All three networks repeatedly lied about the availability of late-term abortion procedures. Across networks, 89% of coverage of extreme abortion procedures was inaccurate. Ninety percent of Fox’s statements were lies, and 100% of statements made on CNN were inaccurate. MSNBC also unquestioningly aired anti-abortion statements, with 58% of its coverage of extremist abortion containing lies.
Many lies were demonstrably false and had been repeatedly disproved. That didn’t stop the media from airing them. Fox continues to claim that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue, in spite of investigations finding no support for this claim.
How Fox Sets the Tone of the Abortion Debate
The study shows how abortion foes have helped set the tone of the abortion debate, putting abortion clinics and women’s healthcare providers on the defensive. When even “liberal” media outlets such as MSNBC repeat the lies, it skews public perception about abortion. It may even change how some politicians vote. And it certainly makes it easier for the far right to manipulate people with false claims about abortion until birth.
The truth about abortions is that almost everyone supports the procedure in at least some situations. A 2019 survey found that just 25% of Americans think abortion should be mostly illegal, but even this group supports exceptions for rape and incest. Even among Republicans, support for abortion is widespread. Just 22% of Republican voters think abortion should be illegal in all cases. Donald Trump’s most avid fans also offer support for abortion. Seventy-nine percent of “Never Hillary” voters think Roe vs. Wade should not be overturned.
Americans rely on the media to give them actionable information. They use this information to make voting decisions. So when the media tells them lies about abortion, it should come as no surprise that they vote for rabidly anti-choice candidates—even when those positions run counter to the voter’s own ideas.
Abortion bans kill women. That’s not an accident. The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and some states’ maternal mortality rates are worse than those of nations such as Iraq and Iran. People who claim to care about life continue to ignore women who suffer and die in an inadequate healthcare system, and continue to pass legislation that will kill even more women.
Demand better from our media. There are lives at stake.