On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity forwarded the false conservative talking point — which PolitiFact.com gave “Pants on Fire” status — that White House science and technology adviser John Holdren “advocated compulsory abortion” and “spoke out in defense of compulsory abortion and sterilization.” In fact, Holdren never “advocated” for any kind of involuntary birth control; he co-authored an environmental sciences book more than 30 years ago that discusses “compulsory control of family size” including abortion and sterilization as a possible consequence for countries whose expanding birth rates are not curbed by “milder methods.”
From the
September 8 edition of Fox News’ Hannity:
HANNITY: So we know the White House
sought out Van Jones, which begs the question: How many more like him are
serving in our government? Is Van Jones just the tip of the
iceberg?We know for
example there’s John Holdren, the science and technology adviser, who has
advocated compulsory abortion. And then there’s Cass Sunstein, the
Harvard law professor, who wants to ban hunting and grant rights to livestock,
wildlife, and pets.Now we can only conclude that it’s
time to take a much closer look at who exactly this president has now serving in
our government.[...]
HANNITY: Here’s the question I have. When you have Eric [sic]
Holdren, his science adviser, who supports — spoke out in defense of compulsory
abortion and sterilization.MICHAEL STEELE (Republican National
Committee chairman): Yep.HANNITY: When you have a State
Department lawyer, Harold Koh, who says the U.S.
should follow Sharia law in some cases. This guy Cass Sunstein who wants to give
rights to pets and ban hunting. You know, the question is, this is not just one
mistake here.STEELE:
Right.HANNITY: What does this tell you
about this president? Is he presenting a more moderate face to the American
people, but in reality he is a radical himself?
PolitiFact calls
similar claim about “forcing abortions” “irresponsible,” gives it “Pants on
Fire” status
PolitiFact.com:
“We think it’s irresponsible to pluck a few lines from a 1,000-page, 30-year-old
textbook, and then present them out of context.” After Fox
News’ Glenn Beck claimed that Holdren “proposed forced
abortions and putting
sterilants in the drinking
water to control population,” PolitiFact concluded that “the text of the book
clearly does not support that. We think a thorough reading shows that these were
ideas presented as approaches that had been discussed. They were not posed as
suggestions or proposals. In fact, the authors make clear that they did not
support coercive means of population control. Certainly, nowhere in the book do
the authors advocate for forced abortions.” From PolitiFact:
But in
seeking to score points for a political argument, Beck seriously
mischaracterizes Holdren’s positions. Holdren didn’t advocate those ideas then.
And, when asked at a Senate confirmation hearing, Holdren said he did not
support them now. We think it’s irresponsible to pluck a few lines from a
1,000-page, 30-year-old textbook, and then present them out of context to
dismiss Holdren’s long and distinguished career. And we rate Beck’s claim Pants
on Fire!
PolitiFact also quoted a statement
from Holdren’s office that said:
The
quotations used to suggest that Dr. Holdren supports coercive approaches to
limiting population growth were taken from a 1977 college textbook on
environmental science and policy, of which he was the third author. The quoted
material was from a section of the book that described different possible
approaches to limiting population growth and then concluded that the authors’
own preference was to employ the noncoercive approaches before the environmental
and social impacts of overpopulation led desperate societies to employ coercive
ones. Dr. Holdren has never been an advocate of compulsory abortions or other
repressive means of population limitation.
Indeed, Holdren
and his co-authors advocated for non-coercive means of population control.
After Holdren and his co-authors
discussed involuntary fertility control, they concluded that “[a] far better
choice, in our view, is to expand the use of milder methods of influencing
family size preferences, while redoubling efforts to ensure that the means of
birth control, including abortion and sterilization, are accessible to every
human being on Earth within the shortest possible time. If effective action is
taken promptly against population growth, perhaps the need for the more extreme
involuntary or repressive measures can be averted in most countries.” Excerpted
from Ecoscience: Population, Resources,
Environment, written by Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, and
Holdren:
[...]
Fox News
routinely distorts textbook passage to attack Holdren
Hannity has
previously said Holdren has “spoken out in defense of
compulsory abortion.” Hannity has repeatedly
accused Holdren of defending “compulsory abortion.” On his Fox News show,
Hannity said: “We have this other
guy, a science adviser, Eric [sic] Holdren, who’s spoken out in defense of
compulsory abortion. And, you know, all of
this — I know we’ve been very engaged. We have
talked about all of these czars and all of these extreme positions. But there’s
one right after another.” [Hannity, 9/2/09]
Beck: Obama czars
have “nut-job beliefs like putting sterilants in drinking water …
forced abortions.” Discussing Obama’s czars on his Fox
News show, Beck said: “I’m more concerned with the fact that
seeming — seemingly every single one of these guys shares one common thing:
They all have nut-job beliefs like putting sterilants in drinking water, legal rights
for animals, forced abortions. There’s at least one communist
that I know. The collective resumes of these czars has me on my knees every
night praying for the run-of-the-mill socialist just to be appointed.” [Glenn Beck,
8/3/09]
Beck: “Holdren has proposed forced abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control
population.” On his Fox News show, Beck said:
“I mean, look at what’s going on. We got czars coming out
our — they’re shooting out of our butts. Czars like John Holdren, who is — there is great evil happening in our country. Holdren has proposed forced abortions and putting
sterilants in the drinking
water to control population. Oh, that’s crazy. What, that was — that was 20
years ago.” [Glenn Beck,
7/22/09]
Michelle Malkin
accused Holdren of putting forth and writing about “wacky and nutty
policies.” On Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor
Michelle Malkin said: “I’ve been focusing on the so-called science czar, John
Holdren, and he’s actually one of the few, quote-unquote ‘czars’ who did go
through the nomination process. But even in that sense there was not enough
accountability for the wacky and nutty policies that this guy has put forth and
wrote about in the 1970s. This is a guy who wrote a book that actually posited
the idea of putting sterilants in the water supply so that women would be
infertile, and they would have control over the population. It’s very scary. And
that’s ultimately what the whole czar regime about. It’s about control and
coercion.” [Fox & Friends,
7/16/09]
