When is a fake news watchdog more fake than the “fake news” it contends is fake? When it’s the web site extension NewsGuard.
The browser add-on NewsGuard claims to fight fake news, but it merely trashes pro-life sources as fake news and say they are unreliable and misinformed simply because they do not rely on disproved pro-abortion talking points.
“NewsGuard uses journalism to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation. Our trained analysts, who are experienced journalists, research online news brands to help readers and viewers know which ones are trying to do legitimate journalism—and which are not,” it claims. But its reviews (which can’t be linked) of LifeNews.com and other pro-life friendly news outlets are off the mark because NewsGuard relies on pro-abortion sources to evaluate news content.
In it’s review of LifeNews.com NewsGuard falsely claims LifeNews “has reported unsubstantiated health claims” and it erroneously contends LifeNews has a “history of publishing false health claims to promote its anti-abortion perspective.”
NewsGuard provides very little proof of its contentions in the writeup from staff writer Evan Haddad — who has worked for ABC News, which has repeatedly been exposed for its pro-abortion bias. One example it uses to make the fabricated claim is that LifeNews has accurately reported on the link between abortion and breast cancer, which it joins abortion activists in calling “unsubstantiated.”
But research continues to show induced abortion is linked to a rise in breast cancer risk. As Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, President of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, has written:
In February 2017, the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology published the “Epidemiology of breast cancer in Indian women.” Malvia, et al. found that from 1982-2005, the incidence of breast cancer had almost doubled. Breast cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths in women in India. India’s burden of breast cancer is ever increasing and now impacting 1.5 million women a year.
In 2018, the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute funded and published “Induced Abortion as an Independent Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Studies on South Asian Women” in Issues in Law and Medicine. (A meta-analysis looks at separate but similar studies in order to use the pooled data for statistical significance. It is regarded by scientists as very strong evidence.)
Of the 20 studies analyzed, 16 were done on Indian women. The meta-analysis found a 151% increased risk of breast cancer after an induced abortion.
Numerous studies have found a link between abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer. Dr. Peter Saunders wrote in 2013:
Of 73 worldwide studies since 1957 (including this latest) on the association of induced abortion and subsequent development of breast cancer: 53 studies show an association, and 15 studies show no association.
And yet many official bodies continue to deny categorically any link between abortion and breast cancer.
NewsGuard cites the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists as an independent source refuting LifeNews and claiming there is no abortion-breast cancer link but ACOG supports abortion and has lobbied agaisnt pro-life legislation.
NewsGuard also claims LifeNews is not factual because we have exposed how Planned Parenthood is mostly an abortion business that provides little in the way of prenatal care for women. But its own figures back up that statement.
In December 2014, Planned Parenthood Federation of America released their annual report for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. In 2013, they performed 327,694 abortions, maintaining their position as the largest abortion business in America. Their breast cancer screening services dropped by 17% and their prenatal services by 4%; and for every adoption referral, the abortion giant performed 174 abortions.
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
Ultimately, 94% of their “services” to pregnant women were abortions.
NewsGuard claims this information on services to pregnant women from Planned Parenthood’s own figures is false because it does not include family planning, pregnancy tests or prenatal care referrals. However, family planning services are generally for women who are not already pregnant, pregnancy tests are merely the same tests any woman can purchase in any convenience store and do not really qualify as genuine prenatal medical care, and prenatal referrals are just that — referrals of women to other sources because Planned Parenthood doesn’t provide prenatal care.
In fact, a 2017 investigation had callers contact almost 100 Planned Parenthood centers nationwide to find out if they offered prenatal care. Virtually every center confirmed it did not. Only five of the 97 facilities it contacted across the United States provided prenatal care; the rest turned them away, according to the investigation.
“Planned Parenthood offers abortions, so they don’t offer prenatal care,” a receptionist at the Planned Parenthood in Tempe, Arizona told a Live Action investigator.
Another receptionist at the Albany, New York facility told them, “No Planned Parenthood does prenatal care, hon.”
A third in Merrillville, Indiana said: “No, we don’t do prenatal services. I mean, it’s called Planned Parenthood, I know it’s kind of deceiving.”
Even the Washington Post, which supports abortion, noted Planned Parenthood’s figures are presented poorly — calling its attempt to hide the fact that it is primarily an abortion business “misleading” and added that it is “using meaningless and incomplete comparisons to make their argument, and the public should wary.”
NewsGuard claims LifeNews’ reporting on Planned Parenthood is false because LifeNews.com refers to the abortion company as an abortion business rather than a nonprofit.
But Planned Parenthood’s own figures prove it’s an abortion corporation.
Planned Parenthood released its annual report for the 2017-2018 fiscal year in January. The report revealed that the number of abortions the group did this past year increased by over 11,000 from 321,384 in 2016 to 332,757.
While the number of abortions and the amount of taxpayer dollars the abortion group received both increased, almost every other category of the group’s services went down. The amount of contraception that the group provided continued to plummet from 2,701,866 in 2016 to 2,620,867 in this report. Cancer screenings and prevention services also continued to go down from 660,777 in 2016 to 614,361. The category of “Other Women’s Health Services” which includes pregnancy tests, prenatal services, and miscarriage care, decreased from 1,315,941 in 2016 to 1,302,460 in 2017-2018.
The abortion group’s reported number of patients held steady at 2.4 million, the same amount as in the 2015 and 2016 reports.
While the number of patients is the same, the organization’s excess of revenue over expenses continued its dramatic increase and more than doubled from $77.5 million in 2015 and $98.5 million in 2016 to a whopping $244.8 million in 2017.
NewsGuard also claims LifeNews is not factual because we have reported on the FDA figures showing 24 women have died from using the abortion drug and thousands have been injured. Our reports are supposedly false and misleading because we didn’t mention that the FDA report covers 17 years. However, LifeNews inked directly to the FDA report and cited from it — showing the report covers the timeline since 2000.
NewsGuard uses the same pro-abortion sources and faulty or obtuse reasoning to trash other pro-life web sites, including Life Site, LiveAction, the Federalist and others while praising pro-abortion news web sites like Vox, ReWire and others that frequently publish false and misleading content.
When it comes to fighting fake news, the biggest fight is the battle to correct the self-proclaimed watchdogs who perpetuate false news and misinformation with misleading reviews of news outlets relying on pro-abortion sources. Like FactCheck.org and Snopes, readers can add NewsGuard to the list of pro-abortion factcheckers who fact checks are nothing more than a rehash of pro-abortion talking points and should be ignored.
