There seems to be a lot of misinformation flowing through the state and national media over the recently passed ban on abortion in the state of Alabama. Some of it is being stated as an opinion, but too much of it is being stated as fact.
Is it ignorance? Is it incompetence? Is it willfully misleading the public?
Who knows. I personally think it comes from the media’s use of social media as an echo chamber and their overarching liberal belief system.
Take, for example, this narrative:
These are the 25 white men who decided to ban abortion in Alabama pic.twitter.com/eHiso7fNcw
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) May 16, 2019
Twenty-five men in the Alabama Senate passed this ban. Women across the country are watching and we will fight back. https://t.co/3XxEzq7bWB
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 15, 2019
At one point, liberals got themselves in such a lather that The Handmaid’s Tale and its oppressive, fictional Republic of Gilead began trending on Twitter.
Gilead is being brought to you by the following people: https://t.co/LrUT6dkbp7
— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) May 15, 2019
The hook here is a bunch of white dudes in Alabama are deciding to punish women for getting abortions.
Maybe the media members covering this stuff don’t know how the Alabama legislative system works. Maybe they truly believe if the state Senate does something by itself then it becomes law.
But that’s not true.
The bill originated in the Alabama State House as a bill sponsored by State Representative Terri Collins (R-Decatur).
https://twitter.com/ToyaBK79/status/1128996388556005376
While Collins is white, she’s also a woman.
After the bill passed both chambers, it then went the desk of Governor Kay Ivey.
Before the abortion ban, Gov. Kay Ivey tested a deeply conservative agenda in Alabama https://t.co/n5zOlgm5NU
— John D. Boyd (@jboyd_DC) May 16, 2019
Ivey is also a white woman.
That Alabama is a sexist hellhole hell-bent on controlling women is a pretty silly argument to make when the governor is a woman who crushed her male opponent, Walt Maddox.
But wait, there is more: Alabama’s women are pro-life.
The polling indicates that of the 58% of Alabamians who think abortion should be “illegal in all/most cases,” 51% of the pro-life voters are female.
The narrative that this is a bill driven by just straight white men is just not supported by the facts.
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 am weekdays on WVNN
