Summary List Placement
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is getting pilloried online for his comments on pregnancy.
Cruz signed onto a letter with other GOP senators calling for the FDA to ban the oral drug Mifeprex – sometimes referred to as the “abortion pill” that can terminate a pregnancy at 97% effectiveness in the first 63 days.
“Pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness, and the abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease,” Cruz tweeted on Wednesday. “Make no mistake, Mifeprex is a dangerous pill. That’s why 20 of my Republican colleagues and I are urging @US_FDA to classify it as such.”
In fact, the United States has the highest maternal death rate of any developed nation. A USA Today investigation found more than 50,000 women experience serious injuries and another 700 die during pregnancy each year.
The reaction to Cruz's erroneous claim about the risk of death was swift and intense.
Oh man when I started hemorrhaging and needed emergency surgery 7 weeks postpartum, I wish Ted Cruz had been there with me lying on the bathroom floor to tell me my life wasn’t threatened. https://t.co/jozVa9S0Lp
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) September 3, 2020
Ted Cruz has never been pregnant and clearly knows nothing about maternal mortality rates in the US or in Texas. People die in childbirth at an unconscionable rate, especially women of color. Not from medication abortion. Sadly, knowledge is not a prerequisite for power. https://t.co/EjER9RGfXC
— Ilyse Hogue (@ilyseh) September 3, 2020
Cruz then returned to Twitter to take issue with the initial coverage.
2/x USA Today recycled the same quotes for their own fake news. Now I “came under fire...” FROM THEM, liberal activists posing as journalists.
Oddly, for these “reporters” Lefty tweets are news, but nobody on Twitter is pro-life w/ a different view.https://t.co/vupWeFsYjZ
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 3, 2020
As a "pro-life" conservative, Cruz is staunchly opposed to abortion, only allowing approval for such a procedure if the life of the mother is at risk.