How Fox News has been misinforming its viewers about abortion

Written by Jane Lee, Isabella Corrao & Helena Hind

Published

In the months leading up to the first presidential election since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Fox News has ignored the positive public health impacts of Vice President Kamala Harris’ pro-choice policy proposals. The network has instead portrayed abortion as an insignificant issue in the election, accused Democrats of fearmongering that former President Donald Trump and Republicans want to restrict access to reproductive rights, and falsely claimed that Democrats want no restrictions on abortions to the point of allowing so-called “post-birth” abortions.

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  • Candidate positions on abortion — and Fox News spin

    • Kamala Harris has advocated for pro-choice policies. The vice president has promised to codify protections for reproductive rights that were stripped after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Harris has also promised to end the Hyde Amendment, which restricts Medicare coverage for abortions. [American Civil Liberties Union, 8/6/24; CBS, 10/29/24; Axios, 9/24/24]
    • Fox News dismissed warnings about Trump and Republicans restricting reproductive rights, accusing Democrats of “trying to terrify women about abortion.” In the two years since Roe was overturned, 13 states have enacted abortion bans with few exceptions. Despite these so-called exceptions, patients have been denied lifesaving health care because doctors fear they will go to prison for providing abortion care, or because the medical issue is not expressed clearly within the bans. According to Dr. Suzanne Bell of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, maternal mortality rates are “in some cases twice as high in restrictive states as they are in supportive abortion states.” Abortion bans also limit care for those experiencing miscarriages and stillbirths. [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 10/23/24; The Fuller Project, 10/9/24; The Associated Press, 8/14/24; Johns Hopkins University; 5/19/23; KFF, 5/2/24]
    • Fox News has claimed that abortion is not particularly important to voters. In the lead-up to the election, the network has consistently failed to report on the deadly effects of Roe v. Wade’s reversal or mention that the majority of registered voters disapprove of its reversal, instead choosing to downplay the issue. Fox notably used this strategy to the Republican Party’s detriment ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. [University of Pennsylvania, 5/14/24; Media Matters, 10/17/24, 10/25/22]
    • Fox News has claimed Trump does not support a national abortion ban – his record says otherwise. Trump pushed for anti-choice policies during his presidential term and campaign, and took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade through his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices. Furthermore, Trump is inextricably linked to Project 2025, which proposes that the next conservative administration should attack reproductive rights from several angles. [NBC News, 4/8/24; CBS News, 10/29/24; Media Matters, 9/19/24, 9/26/24]
    • Fox News has spent this election cycle baselessly fearmongering about abortion care. Network personalities have falsely claimed that Democrats support so-called “post-birth” abortion, which is considered infanticide and is illegal in all 50 states. Fox has focused their attacks on vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, falsely alleging that he supported abortion “up until the moment of birth and in some cases even after.” [Media Matters, 8/6/24, 9/11/24; Politifact, 9/18/24; KFF, 2/21/24]

  • Fox News has dismissed Democratic warnings about Trump and Republicans restricting access to reproductive rights

    • On The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld claimed “a vote for or against Trump, from a woman, has no impact on the issue of abortion.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/9/24] 
    • After co-host Jessica Tarlov criticized Trump for laughing about a Georgia woman who died after doctors delayed lifesaving treatment for abortion-related complications, Gutfeld responded, “He should've said, ‘It’s the Democrats have been lying about it, creating a completely false story.’” [Fox News, The Five, 10/16/24; ProPublica, 9/16/24] 
    • After OutKick founder Clay Travis claimed the Harris campaign was “trying to terrify women about abortion,” citing a New York Times article, anchor Martha MacCallum claimed, “The number of abortions is higher now than it was when Roe v. Wade was overturned. You know, I don’t know how people feel about that, but it certainly, it has not become more limited in the country as a result.” The Times article quoted Dr. Alison Norris, chair of the group that published the analysis: “The data don’t tell us anything about people wanting abortions and not getting them.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 10/23/24; The New York Times, 10/22/24] 
    • Fox News neglected to cover reporting about the deaths of two women in Texas who sought abortion care during medical emergencies. The network once again failed to inform its viewers of the fatal consequences of abortion bans at the state level. [Media Matters, 11/4/24]
    • In a report about “Harris framing November's choice as a matter of life and death because of what she calls Trump’s abortion bans,” Fox correspondent Jacqui Heinrich said that “whether Thurman died because of Georgia law is disputed,” suggesting that doctors who delayed treatment were responsible. Heinrich’s report omits context that abortion bans are “not rooted in science” and “pit doctors’ fears of prosecution against their patients’ health needs,” according to medical experts quoted in ProPublica’s piece about Thurman’s death. [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 10/25/24; ProPublica, 9/16/24] 

  • Fox News has claimed that abortion is not very important to voters

    • MacCallum downplayed the importance of abortion as a campaign issue while women impacted by the overturning of Roe spoke at the Democratic National Convention. The “straight news” anchor stated, “There are voters, Hispanic voters, Black voters, lots of voters out there who — for whom, this is not a good issue.” [Fox News, Fox News Democracy 2024 - The Democratic National Convention, 8/19/24; Media Matters, 8/21/23] 
    • The Five co-host Jeanine Pirro argued that more women were concerned about the combined issues of economy and immigration than abortion: “When women talk about immigration, when you put the economy and immigration together, it beats abortion by 32 points.” [Fox News, The Five, 10/16/24] 
    • Denying that Trump supported a national abortion ban, co-host Ainsley Earhardt suggested that people in Alabama don’t want abortion rights, saying, “If you live in New York, you probably always get an abortion. If you live in Alabama, maybe not. I don't know, but it’s whatever you decide as the voter of the state.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/22/24] 

  • Fox News has claimed Donald Trump does not support a national abortion ban

    • After Kamala Harris mentioned a Trump-promised national abortion ban, MacCallum claimed that “there is no Trump abortion ban,” only an “overturn of Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court.” Guest Jack Brewer, who said that Harris is “truly carrying a jezebel spirit,” commented that “it is sad to hear that she is manipulating so many people, saying that President Trump is representing something that he has clearly stated that he hasn’t represented.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 9/20/24] 
    • Fox host Sean Hannity argued that Donald Trump has “been very clear that the states ought to decide” abortion regulations. Hannity also referenced Ohio, a red state, that voted to support abortion rights: “That’s what moving Roe v. Wade back to the states actually represents.” He neglected to mention that Ohio was leading the nation in “in the greatest number of women affected by shortages and lack of access to maternity care in the United States.” [Fox News, Fox News Democracy 2024, 10/1/24; Center for American Progress, 11/8/23] 
    • Reacting to Melania Trump coming out in support of pro-choice policies, Special Report anchor Bret Baier speculated that her statement “softens and maybe shores up” that Trump “wouldn't pass or sign a national abortion ban.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 10/3/24] 
    • Host Harris Faulkner praised Trump’s responses on abortion at her Georgia Town Hall when he said, “A woman does have the right for her body, and then this is why I gave that right back to the states.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 10/16/24] 
    • Speaking with Fox News contributor Guy Benson, Earhardt said that Trump wanting to enact a national abortion ban “is a lie” because “he just wants to send abortion back to the states.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/22/24] 

  • Fox News has spent this election cycle baselessly fearmongering about abortion care

    • After wildly mischaracterizing former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s comments on third trimester abortions, Hannity claimed “months seven, eighth, and ninth — even people I know that are pro-choice, that would be infanticide.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/10/24; The Associated Press, 4/11/24]
    • Co-host Brian Kilmeade falsely claimed that under Walz, Minnesota performed five “abortions” after birth. He continued, “It soon turned to the fact-checking on abortion, when it came to there’s no abortion after the ninth month, when, in fact, under Gov. Tim Walz, it happened at least five times in Minnesota.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/11/24] 
    • Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway claimed that “Tim Walz himself allows babies that survive an abortion — it’s rare, but it happens — allows them to not have standard of care, warmth, food, water, liquids. You just have to let them ‘expire.’” She continued, “That’s not what pro-choice women say they mean when they call themselves pro-choice.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 9/13/24] 
    • Earhardt claimed that Minnesota’s abortion law “says there are no exceptions. You can have an abortion all the way through.” She also complained that Kamala Harris wouldn’t answer, demanding, “What’s too extreme? Seven months, eight months, nine months?” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/25/24] 
    • Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen said the “Democratic orthodoxy” is “abortion on demand, taxpayer-funded, up until the moment of birth and in some cases even after.” “That is just a radical position,” he said. [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 10/28/24]