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  • 2019-10-29 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Taylor Swift Say She 'Supports Abortion'? (en)
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  • In October 2019, we received multiple inquiries from readers about the accuracy of a report that claimed that the pop megastar Taylor Swift had said she supports abortion and finds it hard to believe people want to protect unborn children. The August 2019 article, by the pro-life website LifeNews, was shared widely after the website re-promoted it on its Facebook page. The headline proclaimed Taylor Swift: 'Obviously' I Support Abortion. 'Can't Believe' People Want to Protect Unborn Children. The article reported that: LifeNews distorted Swift's exact words somewhat, but fundamentally gave an accurate description of her professed viewpoint on abortion, access to abortion, and legislative efforts to curtail that access in some U.S. states. In an interview with The Guardian, published on Aug. 24, Swift was asked about her views on politics, the 2016 election, and her sense of the state of society in the United States in 2019, as follows: Swift clearly stated I'm pro-choice, meaning she supports access to abortion rights, as a matter of principle. That's not quite the same as saying I support abortion, as LifeNews rather conspicuously insisted on claiming. Those who identify as pro-choice typically support affording women the option of choosing to terminate their pregnancy, rather than being enthusiastic or gleeful in any way about the actual procedure involved. Rephrasing what Swift actually said appears to have been a rhetorical ploy on the part of LifeNews, but the substantive effect of the reporting was that the reader would correctly understand that the singer supports abortion rights. Similarly, Swift did not actually say she couldn't believe people want to protect unborn children — that was, again, LifeNews' own characterization of laws passed by several state legislatures in 2018 and 2019, which would tightly restrict access to abortions. According to the Guardian interviewer's account, Swift appears to have been asked about the Tennessee Legislature's proposal to pass a bill that would almost totally ban abortion. Prompted in this way, she replied, I mean, obviously, I'm pro-choice, and I just can't believe this is happening. So, although LifeNews misled readers by attributing its own description of such abortion restrictions to Swift, the substantive effect on the reader was, once again, that they would correctly understand Swift to be opposed to such measures. (en)
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