Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) had a friendly chat with Fox host Steve Doocy about Missouri’s extreme anti-abortion bill and the two advanced the GREAT BIG LIE that Democrats support infanticide while – ahem – painting those who support women’s reproductive rights as the real extremists.
The lie has been a featured propaganda meme of late on Fox. Anti-abortion zealot and misinformer Steve Doocy proved he’s all on board with promoting this dangerous falsehood for the sake of his politics.
Doocy began the propaganda session with a report on Missouri’s extreme anti-abortion bill, banning abortions after eight weeks of a pregnancy (among other noxious things), which just passed the Missouri state senate. He happily introduced Hawley, a virulently anti-abortion Republican, of course.
In answering Doocy’s question of “what is going on” with the raft of recent restrictive abortion laws, Hawley, who says his goal is the criminalization of all abortion, wasted no time in getting to the scripted Fox talking point; i.e. that pro-choice Democrats advocate for infanticide.
Doocy responded, “Mmmhmm.”
That GREAT BIG LIE is also, coincidentally, being pimped by Fox’s greatest fan, Donald Trump.
Doocy also provided the requisite Fox message in the form of a question: “I’m sure this is the argument you would make, is the people of Missouri should be able to decide. It should be a state’s rights issue.”
Doocy did not mention that another part of the bill makes abortion illegal if Roe v. Wade is reversed and that there are no exceptions for rape or incest. Naturally, he didn’t say that the bill, with its eight-week viability standard, is not consistent with Roe which has a much later viability standard and, as such, will face a court challenge.
Hawley claimed that Roe was “wrongly decided” and that’s it’s “up to the people to decide.” He expects that the Supreme Court will weigh in. He expressed pride that, in the U.S. Senate, he supported legislation to “stop this kind of extremism in places like New York and Virginia, and other places where Democrat politicians are actually advocating abortion in the final weeks of pregnancy.”
Hawley is misrepresenting these laws (failed legislation in Virginia). They allow for third-trimester abortion if the life or health of the mother is impaired.
Hawley continued his anti-abortion screed: “These are policies, Steve, that only a few countries in the world like Iran, like China allow. I mean, we’ve got to stop this kind of extremism.” (Actually, Sen. Hawley, Iran's policy is far stricter than the United States'). Yet Doocy continued to murmur his agreement.
So Fox News believes that a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, particularly in cases of rape and incest, is “extreme?” Talk about extremism!
Watch it above, from the May 16, 2019 Fox & Friends.
