Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., took exception on Monday to a Washington Post Wonkblog headline that seemed to say women face no physical dangers when getting an abortion, despite the crimes of convicted abortionist Kermit Gosnell.
The Post’s headline said Monday’s Supreme Court ruling dispelled the “myth” that women can face harm from abortion doctors, which riled up Sasse. “Please fix this bizarre headline. (Or are you suggesting that Gosnell’s mass murdering was a myth?)” the senator said on Twitter.
.@washingtonpost
Please fix this bizarre headline.
(Or are you suggesting that Gosnell’s mass murdering was a myth?) https://t.co/llIHmFmAxz— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 27, 2016
The Post headline ran after the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that Texas’ recently enacted abortion regulations unconstitutionally limited a woman’s access to abortion under Roe v. Wade.
Supporters of the 2013 abortion law, HB2, argue the increased regulations are meant to prevent people like Gosnell, who was convicted in 2013 of three counts of first-degree murder for the death of children who were killed after they were delivered alive, from committing similar crimes. Gosnell was also found guilty in 2013 of involuntary manslaughter for the death of a 41-year-old woman who died after she was overdosed with anesthesia during an abortion procedure in 2009.
The Texas law mandated that abortionists must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30-mile radius, and that all clinics must also meet the standards required of surgical centers. However, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued in her concurring opinion that women are put at a greater risk when regulations limit their access to abortion.
“When a state severely limits access to safe and legal procedures,” she wrote, “women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners, faute de mieux, at great risk to their health and safety.”
In its write-up of Ginsburg’s opinion, the Washington Post’s social media feed published a headline that treated the justice like a popstar, while seemingly downplaying Gosnell’s crimes, according to Sasse.
“Notorious RBG smacks down a major abortion myth after historic SCOTUS ruling,” read the Wonkblog headline. The myth, said the Post, was that terminating a pregnancy in a clinic is dangerous.
Notorious RBG smacks down a major abortion myth after historic SCOTUS ruling https://t.co/rBcWocEP9k
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 27, 2016
The headline as it appeared on the Post’s website differed slightly from what the paper’s Twitter feed published Monday: “Ginsburg smacks down a major abortion myth after historic SCOTUS ruling.”
Justice Samuel Alito agreed with Ginsburg that using Gosnell as an argument for increased abortion regulations is a no-go, and indicated that Gosnell was an outlier example because he was ignoring the regulations already in place.
“Gosnell had not been actively supervised by state or local authorities or by his peers, and the Philadelphia grand jury that investigated the case recommended that the Commonwealth adopt a law requiring abortion clinics to comply with the same regulations as [Ambulatory surgery centers],” he wrote.
“If Pennsylvania had had such a requirement in force, the Gosnell facility may have been shut down before his crimes. And if there were any similarly unsafe facilities in Texas, HB2 was clearly intended to put them out of business,” Justice Alito added.
