AG Report 10.17.2024
Media Mislead on Abortion Stories
Some media outlets have started a new trend of portraying disturbing stories as consequences of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision — even when facts suggest the cases are completely unrelated. The latest example involves the case of Amari Marsh in South Carolina.
A story by KFF News, picked up by CNN, attributed the Dobbs decision to Marsh being criminally investigated and charged with homicide by child abuse following a premature birth. This insinuation, which was echoed by other news organizations, is false. The SCOTUS decision and the subsequent changes to South Carolina’s abortion laws had no bearing on this case.
Abortion was still legal in South Carolina for up to 22 weeks when Marsh’s baby was born prematurely, meaning she could have legally obtained an abortion at that time. Moreover, South Carolina law does not allow for the prosecution of the mother for obtaining an abortion.
The facts of Marsh’s case are largely unrelated to abortion, except for the evidence that she sought an abortion pill from Planned Parenthood and subsequently lied about it to police. Marsh voluntarily left the hospital on the night of the premature birth and delivered the baby in her bathroom.
Police pursued criminal charges because of evidence that the baby was born alive, but Marsh ignored the 911 dispatcher’s repeated instructions to remove the baby from the toilet. The infant, who was left in the toilet covered by used toilet paper, still showed signs of life when medical responders arrived. Police believed this refusal led to the baby’s death post-birth.
A grand jury decided there was insufficient probable cause to proceed with charges, but it’s important to note these charges would have been considered regardless of the Dobbs decision. The attempts to frame this and similar cases as adverse outcomes of Dobbs are intentionally dishonest acts of activism.
Academia and Media Failures are Driving Social Unrest in America
Academia and the media are failing in America and driving social flare-ups across the country. Here are three examples of how these institutions have mainstreamed extreme and dangerous views and contributed to the decay of public discourse: