As the 2020 race heats up and with 20 Democratic presidential candidates remaining, the fight continues for who is the most extreme when it comes to abortion. Monday, one of the candidates, Beto O’Rourke, once again affirmed his support for late-term abortion with no exceptions (a position only 7% of Millennials support). We already knew he was extreme. Problem here is, he’s also wrong.
On Monday, during his town hall at the College of Charleston, Beto made the claim that due to abortion restrictions in his home state of Texas, a quarter of abortion facilities had shut down and caused a “maternal mortality crisis.” The issue? A study that was published the medical journal, Obstetrics and Gynecology said there was indeed an increase in maternal mortality in Texas. Then in 2018, the same journal published another study that found the mortality rate was less than half of what was originally reported. And this doesn’t even begin to address that funding cuts or regulations had no actual role in the spike.
The misinterpretation of date in the original study happened because dozens of women were identified as pregnant when they were not. Additionally, around this time, incorrect information may have been recorded due to an increase of 40% of death certificates being filed electronically. The state of Texas established a Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force in 2013 in order to reduce the number of maternal deaths, which led to more accurate data in 2018 as the importance of accurate records became a priority of the task force. Additionally, the state issued a news release refuting the incorrect data O’Rourke continues to cite.
So, Beto continues to declare these factually incorrect statements, but it keeps getting worse. Some high schooler should probably point out to him that correlation does not equal causation. In April, he had also made this claim about maternal mortality rates while ironically stating, “Planned Parenthood, to be specific, in Texas, is saving the lives of our fellow women,” as if the abortion giant has more than 3% of its services related to anything other than abortion, or did not regularly betray women. This situation proves one thing: Beto cares less about women and more about courting the abortion lobby… even if it means reciting their bad data.
