CNN anchor attacks pro-life doctor, defends abortion pills, but her narrative crumbles when guests dish out the facts



CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins tried on Tuesday to lecture a pro-life doctor and lawyer about the purported safety of abortion pills, but she ended up receiving an on-air fact-check.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on Tuesday. The case challenges the FDA's broad approval of mifepristone — one of the pills most commonly used in medical abortions — and the FDA's expanded access to the medication in 2016 and 2021.

Dr. Christina Francis, an ob-gyn and plaintiff in the case, and Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Kristen Waggoner appeared on Collins' show and dismantled her defense of mifepristone.

First, Collins asserted without evidence that Dr. Francis has no experience treating women who experience complications from mifepristone.

"Just to be clear, Dr. Francis: You have never had to go to the emergency room to do this," Collins told the physician. "You've never been required to perform an abortion for someone who had complications from taking this, right?"

Francis quickly corrected the record.

"I have actually taken care of women in our emergency room who have come in with complications and had to do procedures to finish removing the contents of their pregnancy from their uterus," Francis corrected.

"But not an abortion, right?" Collins followed up.

"I have been brought down to the emergency room to complete the process that was started by these abortion drugs," Francis explained. "This is happening more and more frequently because women are not even receiving in-person medical care prior to receiving these high-risk drugs because of the FDA's decisions."

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tries to gotcha pro-life Dr. Christina Francis: “Just to be clear, Dr. Francis, you have never had to go to the ER…to perform an abortion for someone who had complications from taking [chemical abortion drugs], right?” pic.twitter.com/ZeaUyLlt5W
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) March 27, 2024

Then, Waggoner challenged Collins' assertion that mifepristone is safe and reiterated that the petitioners in the case simply want women to have contact with a doctor before they essentially induce at-home labor with abortion pills.

"The FDA's own label, right now, when you go out and you purchase this drug, it tells you that one in 25 women are going to have to visit the emergency room and up to 7% of women are going to have surgical interventions," Waggoner explained.

"We're told that it's safe, that no one has the right to challenge the FDA. And this is the same FDA that told us that opioids were safe to use for chronic pain and that surely no one would get addicted," she said.

Collins, however, pushed back, claiming, "Penicillin is more dangerous than mifepristone."

But Waggoner had more hard data to fact-check Collins, all of which came directly from the FDA.

"What the FDA's own statistics and documents say are that up to 7% of women are going to have surgical interventions. In just 2020, the FDA said that an in-person doctor visit is not only minimally burdensome on a patient, but it's necessary," she explained. "And they explicitly said that thousands of women are presenting with severe complications as a result of taking this drug."

"This isn't me saying it. It's what the FDA has said," she added. "What they say in court now is very different than what their own data tell you."

CNN’s @kaitlancollins repeatedly claims on air that chemical abortion drugs are safe

ADF’s @KWaggonerADF: “Kaitlin, that’s actually not true…what the FDA’s own statistics and documents say is that up to 7% of women are going to have surgical complications.” pic.twitter.com/LHA7ZxdNfe
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) March 27, 2024

Aside from Waggoner's explanation, Collins has zero data to support her claims about the safety of abortion pills.

That's because, starting in 2016, the FDA required doctors to report only deaths from mifepristone — not any and every adverse effect and complication. Then, in 2021, the FDA loosened restrictions on the drug, further citing the apparent lack of adverse effects and complications as justification.

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Rep. Jim Banks regains access to locked Twitter account after deleting post in which he called transgender official 'a man'



Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana has regained the ability to post content on his @RepJimBanks Twitter account after the social media company locked the account in October.

Twitter took the action in response to a tweet in which the congressman referred to Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine as "a man."

Levine is biological man who identifies as a woman.

An HHS release last month described Levine as the "first-ever female four-star admiral" in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

Twitter took issue with a tweet on Banks' account that declared, "The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man."

NEW: Twitter has censored @RepJimBanks for calling HHS' Rachel Levine a man. He will be locked out of his account until he deletes the tweet, "The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man."pic.twitter.com/6wdDqJ36kH

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) 1634991440

Banks said in a Friday statement that while he has deleted the tweet, he stands by its veracity.

"Twitter was blocking my communications with Hoosiers right before Congress votes on the largest expansion of the federal government since the Great Society. Twitter demanded I delete the tweet if I wanted to participate in a momentous political debate, which is my job, so I did, but I stand by every word in my factual statement," Banks said in the statement, according to WANE.

A House vote on a massive spending proposal opposed by Republicans did not materialize on Friday, but the chamber may potentially still vote on a bipartisan infrastructure measure.

"I'm not the first, I won't be the last conservative that Big Tech tries to silence," Banks said in a video that marked his first post since being blocked from utilizing the account.

I\u2019m back.pic.twitter.com/xk9GhQpQaR

— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) 1636135147

After targeting Rep. Banks for calling transgender HHS official Rachel Levine 'a man,' Twitter targeted Not the Bee for tweeting about the story



Not the Bee's Twitter account was temporarily locked and required to delete a tweet in order to regain access, according to Adam Ford.

While the popular satire website The Babylon Bee serves up fictitious content, Not the Bee operates in an entirely different lane that involves highlighting real news stories.

"Not the Bee is a humor-based news, opinion, and entertainment site from the creators of The Babylon Bee and Disrn. Like the name suggests, it'll feature some absurd and hilarious (but real) news that seems like it should definitely be satire," Ford noted on the site last year.

Ironically, the Not the Bee tweet flagged by Twitter was meant to share a post about Twitter targeting the official account of U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) over a tweet describing Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine as "a man."

Not the Bee's offending tweet stated: "Twitter suspended a sitting congressman for calling transgender HHS official Rachel Levine — who is a biological male —a 'man'"

Levine, a transgender woman, is a biological male who identifies as a woman. Last week an HHS release described Levine as the "first-ever female four-star admiral" in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publicly announced today the nation's first openly transgender four-star officer across any of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Admiral Rachel Levine, who serves as the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health and head of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps, was ceremonially sworn in as a four-star admiral," the release stated. "Admiral Levine now serves as the highest ranking official in the USPHS Commissioned Corps and its first-ever female four-star admiral."

The Republican congressman's official Twitter account was locked by the social media company for a tweet that declared, "The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man."

Reports indicate that a Twitter spokesperson informed media outlets that the congressman's account was temporarily locked for breaching the company's hateful conduct policy and that the offending tweet must be deleted before account access will be restored.

"The account referenced has been temporarily locked for violating our Hateful Conduct Policy. The account owner is required to delete the violative Tweet before regaining access to their account," a Twitter spokesperson noted in a statement, according to The Hill.

Banks, who has not posted any tweets on that account since Oct. 22, announced that he will be posting on his personal account.

"Twitter has suspended my official account for posting a statement of FACT. I won't back down. I'll be posting on my personal account for the time being," he tweeted.

NEW: Twitter has censored @RepJimBanks for calling HHS' Rachel Levine a man. He will be locked out of his account u… https://t.co/LFrJyWu9gf

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) 1634991440.0

Twitter targets GOP rep who called transgender official Rachel Levine 'a man' — but lawmaker refuses to back down



Twitter removed a tweet from the official account of Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Saturday, accusing the lawmaker of violating the platforms rules against "hateful content."

What are the details?

Banks was reportedly "censored," locked out of his official Twitter account until he deleted a tweet that called Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health, "a man." Levine was born a biological man, but is transgender and now identifies as a woman.

Banks critically tweeted about Levine on Tuesday after news broke that Levine would receive the honor of being the "first-ever female four-star admiral" of the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps.

"The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man," Banks said in the now-removed tweet.

By Saturday, Twitter had taken down the message, accusing Banks of violating the platform's rules prohibiting "hateful content."

"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules," the message from Twitter read. "You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories."

NEW: Twitter has censored @RepJimBanks for calling HHS' Rachel Levine a man. He will be locked out of his account u… https://t.co/LFrJyWu9gf

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) 1634991440.0

Twitter rules further explain that "misgendering" someone is a violation of platform policies.

"We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals," Twitter rules state.

How did Banks respond?

The Indiana congressman refused to back down from his remark about Levine.

"My tweet was a statement of fact," Banks said in a statement. "Big Tech doesn't have to agree with me, but they shouldn't be able to cancel me. If they silence me, they will silence you. We can't allow Big Tech to prevent us from telling the truth. When Republicans take back the House next year, we must restore honesty to our public forums and hold Big Tech accountable."

Twitter, however, did not censor Banks for another tweet critical of Levine.

"Calling someone that was born and lived as a man for 54 years the first 'female' four-star officer is an insult to every little girl who dreams of breaking glass ceilings one day," that tweet said.