Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez flat-out lied about a non-existent criminal provision in the controversial Alabama abortion law, but how she tried to get out of it was far worse.
The extreme socialist from New York took to social media Wednesday to promote a falsehood about the legislation – that women could be jailed for having an abortion.
“Alabama lawmakers are making all abortions a felony punishable [with] jail time, [including] women victimized by rape [and] incest,” she wrote.
It’s as obvious a lie as one could possibly imagine, and she actually typed it out and sent it to an army of gullible followers.
A quick read of the bill – ringing in at a mere 3.5 pages long – states quite specifically:
“No woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed shall be criminally or civilly liable.”
To be fair, 3.5 pages is about 4 pages longer than AOC is used to reading on any given day.
Called Out For Lying
Liz Wheeler, the host of ‘Tipping Point’ for One America News Network, quickly called Ocasio-Cortez out for the suggestion.
“This is a lie,” she responded. “Under no circumstances would women be jailed for abortions. The abortionist would be penalized.”
Wheeler urged her to “tell the truth.”
280 characters is plenty of room to tell truth. It’d never be a felony for women. Period.
It’s despicable to use victims of child rape as justification for 1M abortions every year… because you Dems aren’t seeking exemption for rape/incest, you want all abortion legal always.
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) May 15, 2019
Rather than saying she misspoke or admitting she misinterpreted the law, Ocasio-Cortez doubled down alleging, “It’s a felony punishable by jail, [including] cases of women pregnant by rape or incest.”
“It’d never be a felony for women. Period,” Wheeler shot back.
AOC Squirms
This is where things get truly outlandish.
Ocasio-Cortez, who in two separate tweets claimed specifically that women would be charged for having an abortion, implied that she was actually referring to the doctors – just the female ones.
This was embarrassing even by the freshman congresswoman’s already incredibly low standards.
Actually it *would* be a felony for women – if those women are medical providers. See? According to your own semantic standard, you “lied.”
We can fact-check obvious semantics all day and make absurd bad faith claims if that’s how you want be. But I have better uses for my time.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 15, 2019
Amber Athey, White House correspondent for the Daily Caller, was flabbergasted by the level of spin Ocasio-Cortez had just produced with the intention that nobody would catch on.
The spin on this tweet is unreal. AOC explicitly claimed in her first tweet in this thread that women victimized by rape/incest could go to jail under this bill (not true) then later claimed she was talking about female abortionists. https://t.co/wuotiuCfdB
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) May 15, 2019
The fact is, many people on the fence over abortion laws do think this law in some aspects goes too far. If you feel you have an argument to that effect, why lie as blatantly as Ocasio-Cortez did?
Oh, that’s right – in her world, facts don’t matter if you’re morally right.
Actually, facts don’t seem to matter at all.
