The Biden-Harris campaign called the headline regarding presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump‘s position on abortion “erregiously false,” so USA Today amended it.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Biden-Harris, Brooke Goren, the deputy director of communications, and pro-abortion activist Kaitlyn Kash convened a news conference on Monday to deliberate on the media’s portrayal of Trump’s stance on the prohibition of abortion.
Trump made it clear that he supported in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and that states should be allowed to choose their own abortion regulations, provided that there are exceptions for rape, incest, and motherhood.
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“The states will determine by vote, or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land – in this case, the law of the state,” Trump stated. “A lot of states will differ. Numerous states will have a distinct amount of weeks.Ultimately, everything revolves around the people’s desire.”
Members of the Biden-Harris campaign team criticised the media coverage of Trump’s announcement during the news conference.
“One particularly egregiously false headline even said Trump, quote, ‘opposes a national abortion ban and will leave it up to the will of the people,’” a spokesperson for Biden-Harris said.
“The will of the people”: such was the headline used by USA Today to report the story. Trump claims he opposes a national ban on abortion.
The article was headlined “‘The will of the people’: Trump opposes national abortion ban; says states should decide” by USA Today.
“Roughly two hours after the conference call, the old headline was deleted and replaced” with a new one, according to Mediaite, which managed to snap a picture of the original headline.
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“Donald Trump says states should decide abortion policy, avoids talk of a national ban,” was the amended headline, but it lacked an editor’s note outlining the shift. Though it doesn’t say why, the USA Today website states that the story was “updated” about seven hours after it was first published.
The revised narrative is still mentioned. “At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” is how Trump expressed his opinions on the prohibition of abortion.
