Fox & Friends vilifies abortion rights advocates rallying against anti-abortion Louisiana law

Jedediah Bila claims the “abortion rights rally was vile in many respects”

Special Programs Abortion Rights & Reproductive Health

Written by Julie Tulbert

Published

Fox & Friends screencapture

During the March 6 edition of Fox & Friends, co-hosts Pete Hegseth and Jedediah Bila slammed recent remarks by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about the threat of an upcoming Supreme Court decision on abortion rights. The court is considering June Medical Services v. Russo, a case about an anti-abortion Louisiana law that’s based on right-wing misinformation about abortion safety.

During an abortion rights rally in front of the Supreme Court in support of overturning the law, Schumer said, “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” Right-wing media dishonestly went into a tailspin and used Schumer’s comments to claim Democrats are “extreme” on abortion and to vilify abortion rights advocates as a dangerous “mob.”

The Fox & Friends co-hosts continued this spin. Hegseth claimed Schumer made those comments because he became “so unhinged” about “infanticide” -- an incendiary and false claim about Democratic efforts to protect abortion rights that Fox & Friends figures love to promote. Bila attacked the crowd at the rally, saying "that abortion rights rally was vile in many respects” and that “the way babies are being spoken of at rallies like this and how it's been normalized -- is absolutely disgusting.”

From the March 6, 2020, edition of Fox & Friends

PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): For Chuck Schumer, the reason he gets so unhinged is infanticide, abortion is an obsession of the left. There's no more powerful lobby, because, in this case, humankind, mankind replaces God in deciding who lives and who dies.

...

JEDEDIAH BILA (CO-HOST): On the issue of the rally itself, I have to say that that abortion rights rally was vile in many respects. I mean, this issue of abortion is going to be front and center because pro-choice activists used to talk about safe, legal, and rare abortion. And now what you have -- and the way babies are being spoken of at rallies like this and how it's been normalized -- is absolutely disgusting. So the fact that he chose that venue and behaved the way he did is absolutely appalling and will be appalling to a lot of people like pro-life Democrats who still exist around the country, like people who still believe that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. They are going to watch this stuff and really be turned off.