PolitiFact Displays Craptastic Double Standard on Abortion Positions in Wisconsin

PolitiFact underlined how tremendously partisan it sounds on abortion and its extremes. Democrats can say Republicans are extreme in opposing rape and incest exceptions, but Republicans can’t say Democrats are extreme because they want zero limitations on abortion.

Are these people interested in facts? Or are they just interested in making sure Republicans get their social-media messaging canceled in the late stages of an election?

On Friday, they gave Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers a “Mostly True” rating under this headline: 

If a 12-year-old girl became pregnant because of rape or incest, “Tim Michels would force her to deliver the baby.”

On Thursday, the same “independent fact-checkers” gave the National Republican Senatorial Committee a “Mostly False” ruling under this headline: 

“Mandela Barnes came out in favor of abortion up until the moment of birth.”

The NRSC made this claim in an October 6 press release. Vanessa Swales ruled the GOP was “wrong” because Barnes has been dodgy, talking just about a “woman’s right to choose” without government getting involved. It’s bizarre that Democrats get some kind of truth points for mealy-mouthed answers. 

Once again, PolitiFact tried to claim that “codifying Roe” isn’t the same abortion without limits. But Barnes was endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America and touted he supports the “Women’s Health Protection Act.” These people really need to absorb the no-limits text of that extreme bill.

It is the purpose of this Act—

(1) to permit health care providers to provide abortion services without limitations or requirements that single out the provision of abortion services

It then contains a long list of abortion limits it would overturn in any federal or state laws. It throws out whatever “viability” limits the liberals say Roe contained. 

Two weeks ago, we pointed this out when PolitiFact Wisconsin analyst Madeleine Heim threw a “Pants On Fire” flag at the conservative Restoration PAC for implying that Barnes would favor abortion until birth because they conflated it with the word “preemies.”

Now it’s the same Madeleine Heim giving Wisconsin’s Democrat governor a free pass to suggest Tim Michels is an evil man who would force a 12-year-old to give birth. (Like most Democrats, PolitiFact personnel don’t suggest a child’s rapist is the evil man in this scenario.)

It’s a “Mostly True” for this inflammatory Evers ad: 

The television ad from Evers’ campaign said Michels would force a 12-year-old girl to give birth if she became pregnant as a result of rape or incest. 

Michels long opposed adding exceptions for rape and incest into Wisconsin’s abortion ban, though he recently said he’d sign a bill adding them. But that scenario appears unlikely, and his campaign has said his personal beliefs on the issue remain the same. 

We rate this claim Mostly True. 

Anyone who thinks PolitiFact is an honest broker — especially on issues like abortion — they’re not paying attention to their craptastic double standards.