In a round-about way, an independent fact checker confirmed reports this week that the University of California San Francisco is harvesting the genitals of aborted babies and using them for research.
However, readers were given the opposite impression in the PolitiFact article, which began with: “No, UC San Francisco Is Not ‘Harvesting’ The Genitalia Of ‘Murdered Babies’” The fact checker examined a report by Live Action News, which broke the story about UCSF earlier this month.
The pro-life organization’s report exposed the university’s horrific practices of harvesting aborted babies’ clitorises, testicles, penises and other organs. The information came from documents that Pro-Life San Francisco obtained through the California Public Records Act.
This week, PolitiFact rated the article “false” based on its conjecture that Live Action implied the university was intentionally aborting unborn babies just to harvest their genitalia.
“The emails Live Action cites are real and it is true that UCSF conducts biomedical research using human fetal tissue, including fetal tissue from the genitals,” PolitiFact confirmed. “However, the social media posts suggest that UCSF is purposefully killing children to obtain this tissue, which is wildly misleading and inaccurate.”
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But Live Action said the fact checker misrepresented its claims. It pointed out that PolitiFact affirmed the veracity of its report; but rather than rate the article true, it “erroneously declared our claims false because of the use of the words ‘harvest’ and ‘procure,’ which are industry terms.”
Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, said the fact checker is splitting hairs in a “politically motivated attempt” to bury the gruesome discovery.
“Rather than condemning UCSF’s gruesome practices, media entities are either ignoring the story or trying to refute the reality that UCSF itself has admitted to on multiple occasions, including in authenticated emails in which the harvesting of preborn children’s genitalia is discussed,” Rose said. “The atrocities at UCSF show that legalized abortion has led the corrupt abortion industry to look for yet another way to profit from preborn babies’ deaths – now through harvesting their body parts.”
She continued, “Despite PolitiFact’s attempt to split hairs over terminology regarding the collection of aborted baby body parts, the group’s ‘fact check’ actually admitted that UCSF is obtaining aborted baby body parts for research, including their genitals.”
It appears the fact check may be being used to censor the report on Facebook, too.
PolitiFact noted that it has a partnership with Facebook to fact check content, and the social media giant recently “flagged” posts by Live Action exposing the atrocities at UCSF.
“Facebook flagged the posts as part of its efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed, so we decided to break down the claims,” the fact checker wrote, noting that Live Action’s posts were getting a lot of attention.
Live Action did not mention if its posts are being censored as a result of the fact check, but the pro-life organization has slammed social media companies in the past for censoring pro-life information.
Ultimately, however, the truth will prevail. As Rose said: “UCSF is absolutely gathering and obtaining fetal body parts. Their own emails admit it, and this fact check admits it. UCSF’s practices should be immediately stopped; if not, their taxpayer funding should be removed. What UCSF is doing is absolutely grotesque. PolitiFact’s work only affirms our reporting.”
