Pro-Choice Writer Fact-Checked Over Whitewash of Idaho Abortion Prosecution

Isaac SchorrNov 1st, 2023, 4:29 pm
 

(Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman via AP, File)

It’s an iron rule of the universe that the media will misrepresent any and every story involving an abortion to the benefit of pro-choice activists.

On Tuesday, Jessica Valenti, who pens the “Abortion, Every Day” newsletter, became the latest contortion artist to prove said rule.

“Abortion, Every Day Exclusive: Idaho has brought forward charges in the state’s first ‘abortion trafficking’ case. Law enforcement used geolocation data to place a teenager at an Oregon abortion clinic,” declared Valenti on X.

The first problem with Valenti’s coverage of this case only becomes evident if you visit the newsletter itself and read through the fifth paragraph, in which that you learn that “prosecutors declined to use the ‘abortion trafficking’ statute specifically” to charge Kadyn Swainston and his mother, Rachael Swainston.

How does she explain the discrepancy between the title of her article — “Idaho’s first ‘abortion trafficking’ arrest” — and her admission near its midpoint?

Instead of citing the trafficking statute, prosecutors used the exact language of the trafficking law in the kidnapping charge.

I mean that literally: Idaho defines ‘abortion trafficking’ as an adult who “with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor…procures an abortion.” The kidnapping charges against both Kaydn and Rachael accuse them of taking a child “with intent to keep or conceal K.B. from her custodial parent…by transporting the child out of the state for the purpose of obtaining an abortion.” It’s actually a pretty slick move, allowing prosecutors to charge the two with abortion trafficking without citing the statute specifically in case it gets blocked.

This is a ridiculous argument. The prosecutors are describing the facts of the case, which happen to involve an abortion. That doesn’t somehow negate the fact that the defendants weren’t actually charged with abortion trafficking, though that is what Valenti has misled the bulk of those who saw her post on X into believing.

As you read on, it becomes clear that the Valenti has replaced a true tragedy with a fake one meant to stir up outrage among her audience.

The victim in this case is not the mother and son pair pitied by Valenti, but the 15-year-old girl who was allegedly statutorily raped by her 18-year-old boyfriend, before being pressured to obtain an abortion she did not want by him

Kadyn has also been charged with producing child sexually exploitative material for allegedly taking and keeping illegal, sexually explicit photographs of the victim on his phone. His mother also faces up to a lifetime in prison for a felony meth trafficking charge.

Is it any wonder Valenti admits to only some of these details, begrudgingly, in piecemeal fashion after accomplishing most of what she sought out to do with her misleading headline?

On X, a community note was affixed to Valenti’s post. “This case involves several crimes including rape of a minor, and kidnapping across state lines with the intention of obscuring the sexual assault by ending the underaged female’s pregnancy without parental authority or consent,”  it reads.

She responded to the much-deserved blowback by calling the story “complicated and sad” before bizarrely lamenting that it “involves people clearly having a difficult time in life” and mounting a weak defense of the Swainstons.

“That’s not surprising; law enforcement tends to target the most marginalized among us—esp those they believe won’t be sympathetic,” she added.

Let Valenti’s myopic attempt to co-opt this tragedy for the purpose of advancing her political goals serve as a lesson about the media’s ability to contextualize any story with even a tangential connection to abortion.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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