About For Educators For Everyone Global Education NLP News
Subscribe Donate
Home / Post
outrage bait The Other 98% Roe v. Wade

Leaked Supreme Court opinion doesn’t argue that we need a ‘domestic supply of infants’

An out-of-context quote taken from a footnote in the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion  that would strike down Roe v. Wade is being used to stir up partisan outrage online. But the draft opinion does not cite this as a rationale for overturning the constitutionally protected right to abortion. Let’s take a look at the facts.

A meme posted to Facebook by The Other 98% that says “Supreme Court Justices Coney Barrett and Alito’s abortion brief draft has a line referencing the ‘shortage’ in the ‘domestic supply of infants.’ for parents seeking to adopt. Hard to believe this line is from a SCOTUS draft ruling and not from the script of Handmaid’s Tale. This is what we are up against in 2022!” The News Literacy Project has added a label that says, "MISLEADING."
The leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade does not argue that a shortage in the “domestic supply of infants” is a reason to strike down federally protected abortion rights.
This language originated in a 2008 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is quoted in a footnote on page 34 of the draft opinion.

NewsLit takeaway

Hyperpartisan groups often seek to provoke outrage as a strategy to generate engagement and galvanize support on social media — even if it means pushing misleading or inaccurate messages. In this case, the progressive advocacy organization The Other 98% passes off language from a 2008 CDC report that is quoted in a footnote in the leaked opinion. The citation appears in a section of the opinion draft summarizing arguments against abortion, including the increase in “safe haven” laws and the idea that a person who puts their “newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home,” given the number of people seeking to adopt. The CDC report is cited to support that claim. This meme also inaccurately attributes the leaked draft to Justice Amy Coney Barrett and invokes a longstanding falsehood linking her religious beliefs to the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale — likely as a way to provoke further outrage.

Featured Fact-Checks

NLP’s viral rumor rundown is a regular feature in The Sift, its weekly email newsletter for educators, and in Get Smart About News, its weekly email newsletter for the general public. You can subscribe to these newsletters here. Send suggestions, questions or feedback on this rumor or on the viral rumor rundown blog to thesift@newslit.org.