PHOENIX — Jeff Zink, the Republican candidate for Arizona Third Congressional District, repeated an oft-debunked claim about “post-birth abortions” in an interview with 12News Friday.
Zink falsely claimed to 12News anchor Troy Hayden that several states, including California, had laws on the books allowing a child to be killed up to 28 days after birth. No laws have those laws on the books, according to fact checks from the Associated Press, Reuters and CNN.
The allegations of laws allowing the practice of “infanticide” began after a California state representative proposed a bill that would protect mothers from prosecution if their children were stillborn or miscarried, according to a CNN fact check.
Here is the text of the Associated Press’s 2022 fact check:
CLAIM: A California bill would allow mothers to kill their babies up to seven days after birth.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A bill in the California legislature, AB 2223, is being falsely represented. It was introduced to provide legal protection to women who lose their child due to pregnancy complications, and those who have abortions. It does not legalize the killing of infants.
THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a headline that falsely suggests a proposed California bill will legalize “infanticide,” the killing of an infant.
“California introduces new bill that would allow mothers to kill their babies up to 7 days after birth,” reads the erroneous headline on a story published on the Miami Standard, a conservative website.
“To everyone saying it’s fake because it was posted on 4/1 just do some research. 99% of y’all don’t stay in Cali. It’s called The infanticide bill,” claimed a Facebook post sharing a screenshot of the headline on April 1 with over 11,000 reshares.
According to a similar fact check from Reuters, confusion seems to stem from the use of the phrase perinatal deaths in the language of the bill. The American Academy of Pediatrics lists three separate definitions of perinatal deaths including, "Infant deaths that occur at less than 28 days of age and fetal deaths with a stated or presumed period of gestation of 20 weeks or more."
The revised version of the bill clarified that the law would apply to "Causes that occurred in utero."
The final bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom included the clarification on the definition of perinatal deaths after a Democratic-led legislative committee acknowledged the confusion over language, according to a CNN Fact Check.
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