Have you noticed anti-abortion conspiracy theories getting even more absurd than usual?
The anti-abortion movement relies on disinformation because there’s no rational justification for an agenda that defies international human rights standards, bulldozes the will of the people, violates our privacy, and mandates tenth-rate medical care—or none at all—for pregnant people under threat of incarceration.
It’s even worse since Dobbs, as anti-abortion politicians scramble for something to say to a public whose already-overwhelming support for legal abortion has increased as post-Dobbs abortion-ban injuries pile up in headlines.
And if you haven’t heard, it’s an election year. These are ripe conditions for anti-abortion conspiracy-mongering.
What can they say? They’re not about to publicly admit that they believe violating child rape victims’ human rights by denying treatment that could prevent debilitating physical injuries and psychological torment is good, actually. They’re not likely to concede that a pregnant woman asked to sit in the parking lot and get “much sicker” to earn what used to be standard medical treatment in the United States is acceptable collateral damage to their mission.
That’s why they are hiding from their own victories through distraction.
Unless they’re willing to be honest about the horrific consequences of their success so far, anti-abortion conspiracies will bloom wilder and wilder. But as I told the Philadelphia Inquirer in this story, some anti-abortion conspiracies—like the one I was asked about—are too absurd to have to seriously address … especially when you understand the purpose, and that the next one will be even more absurd.
Be prepared though, because the anti-abortion disinformation hose is poised to go full blast as election season heats up and even more post-Dobbs anti-abortion suffering comes into view.
It’s all they have.
