Fulfilling its weekly quota of unbelievably stupid conclusions, PolitiFact brings us
this gem:
The day after Republican Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate, President Barack Obama’s campaign tweeted a gender-specific warning about the Wisconsin vice presidential pick.
"Make sure the women in your life know: Paul Ryan supports banning all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest."
It really should not be a matter of dispute to claim Paul Ryan supports banning all abortions. He has a consistent voting record on that. But because PolitiFact is PolitiFact, it deems the statement only half-true because Paul Ryan has said, in the past, that he supports abortion when the mother's life is at risk. Of course, his voting record doesn't actually demonstrate that, but hey, Paul Ryan said it, so of course PolitiFact wants to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Except, as PolitiFact notes:
Ryan is among 64 House Republicans who co-sponsored the Sanctity of Human Life Act, an anti-abortion bill that declares that human life shall be deemed to begin at fertilization, and should be protected from that point.
So what does
Ryan's bill say?
(1) the Congress declares that—
(A) the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being, and is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person; and
(B) the life of each human being begins with fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent, irrespective of sex, health, function or disability, defect, stage of biological development, or condition of dependency, at which time every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood; and
(2) the Congress affirms that the Congress, each State, the District of Columbia, and all United States territories have the authority to protect the lives of all human beings residing in its respective jurisdictions.
Do you see any exceptions for the life of the mother in there? No. Because there aren't any. But just because there aren't any exceptions doesn't mean there aren't any exceptions, according to PolitiFact:
And the measure does not deal with what exceptions -- if any -- would be allowed. It leaves that up to states or Congress to decide.
Um ... no. The measure does not deal with exceptions because there
are no exceptions. Which PolitiFact would know if it spent half a second reading about the
personhood movement to define a fertilized egg as a person, which, as every single person on the planet who isn't a PolitiFact employee knows, would ban all abortions (as well as contraception and in vitro fertilization, which Ryan also opposes). No exceptions. If there
were exceptions, there would be language in the bill—as there always is in anti-abortion bills that include exceptions—that specify such exceptions. But there is no such language in the bill, because, ahem,
there are no exceptions.
But because PolitiFact is PolitiFact, it's easier to say the president is half-lying than to just admit that Paul Ryan is the extremist we all know he is.
Bravo, PolitiFact. Another Friday FAIL.