After a New York bishop refused to say whether Governor Andrew Cuomo should be excommunicated over New York’s recent abortion law, Fox & Friends went up the chain of command and tried again with Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
As part of its obsession with attacking the New York Law, Fox & Friends suggested to a Catholic bishop that maybe Cuomo should be excommunicated now that New York has passed a law allowing late-term abortions when the health of the mother is at risk or the fetus is deemed unable to live outside the womb.
Unfortunately for Fox & Friends’ agenda, the bishop demurred, saying he has no jurisdiction over Cuomo who lives in a different diocese.
A few days later, the show brought out Catholic big-gun, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan to continue the anti-choice and anti-Cuomo war. Dolan was buddies with former Fox head honcho and accused sexual harasser Roger Ailes. Dolan is so beloved on Fox that two of the network's former hosts endorsed him for Pope.
The outrage machine was immediately cranked up with video of Cuomo praising the new law. Cohost Ainsley Earhardt dramatically intoned that the new law will allow abortions (sigh and long pause) “up until the day of the baby’s birth.”
As in the other discussions of the law, she didn’t mention the fact that late term abortions will be allowed only if the life or health of the mother is at risk and/or if the fetus is deemed unable to live outside the womb. Earhardt spoke of a national “outcry” across the nation. (Thank you Fox News.)
In introducing the portly prelate, cohost Brian Kilmeade set the anti-Cuomo theme with his comment, “There is a Catholic governor cheering the fact that abortion would be legal, in this state, up until almost birth"- which is in accordance with Roe v. Wade, but Kilmeade didn’t mention that.
Dolan, neither a doctor nor a woman, didn’t waste a minute attacking the law. He quoted “independent observers” who say that the “so-called Reproductive Health Act” is “ghoulish, grisly, gruesome.” He proclaimed the law “just awful."
Despite the fact that this law will prevent deaths from “back alley” abortions in the event that Roe is overturned, Dolan made the bogus claim that abortion will now be more dangerous. His face got redder as he and the pals expressed their outrage.
Cohost Steve Doocy, neither a doctor nor a woman, made this bizarre statement: “Just the fact that the baby can be born alive and they can terminate it” (FACT CHECK – There is nothing in the law which would allow anybody to kill a born child. According to the Jesuit “America” magazine, the law is silent on babies “born alive.” How Doocy got to his confabulation is anybody’s guess.)
A distraught-sounding Doocy began weaponizing his morality, saying, pointedly, “There are calls” for Cuomo to be excommunicated.
However, Dolan did not want to go there. He responded that he gets “wheelbarrows of letters every day” but that excommunication would be “counter-productive.”
Doocy kept pressing. “He’s not following Catholic doctrine,” Doocy whined about Cuomo. “The Catholic Church, Cardinal, stands against abortion and here is the most prominent Catholic in the state of New York and he’s saying this is a good thing.” The cardinal did not relent.
Doocy next suggested that Cuomo should be denied Communion.
Dolan talked against that, too; but averred that it was a “good point.”
Watch Fox try again – and fail again – to get Cuomo excommunicated above, from the January 28, 2019 Fox & Friends.
Crossposted with permission from News Hounds.
