CNN has developed a poor reputation for accuracy, especially in the past few years.
Recently one of its contributors, political analyst Kirsten Powers, made a misleading claim about abortions declining under Democratic leadership.
The Daily Caller reports Powers made the comments while discussing the controversial Alabama Senate race with journalist Jake Tapper and Trump campaign strategist David Urban.
“Can we talk about this thing that Republicans do with abortion?” Powers said. “The abortion rate is the lowest rate it has been in 20 years. That’s because of Democrats being in power. This is what happens — every time Democrats are in power, the abortion rate drops.
“They actually provide women with what they need to either avoid the pregnancy or the support they need to actually have the baby, you know, whether it’s health insurance or these kinds of things,” she continued.
Tapper brought up “birth control access” to add to Powers’ claims.
But these claims are misleading, according to the Daily Caller:
While it is true that abortion rates fell sharply under the Obama administration, multiple studies discount that drops in overall rates are party affiliated. Abortion rates have been dropping consistently since Ronald Reagan, no matter the president in office. According to a thorough report by left-leaning Snopes, the claim that abortion rates only fall under Democrats is flatly “false.”
Snopes says “abortion rates have risen and fallen throughout presidencies of both parties, making drawing a direct correlation between the two untenable.” In fact, one of the sharpest increases in abortion rates in American history was during the Carter administration.
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Another factor that contributed to the drop was a historic number of pro-life laws that passed state legislatures during the Obama administration. Even the Guttmacher Institute, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, admitted that these pro-life laws have been contributing to the drop.
Democratic Party leaders do not seem to have any desire to reduce abortions, either.
Ilyse Hogue, president of the radical pro-abortion group NARAL, made it clear that the Democratic Party is not the party of “safe, legal and rare” abortions anymore.
She said the 2016 Democratic Party platform “didn’t just seek to protect abortion access — it sought to expand it.” Hogue was considered for the position of DNC chair in 2016.
The Democratic National Committee has adopted increasingly radical pro-abortion stances on abortion in the past few years. In 2016, the DNC called for taxpayer funded abortions, a move opposed by a strong majority of Americans and one that almost assuredly would increase abortions.
