Topic: WorldNetDaily
Under the headline "The woman who started legal abortion," a Jan. 22 WorldNetDaily article tells the story of Sandra Cano, who was "Doe" in Doe v. Bolton, a 1973 case overturning an extremely restrictive abortion law in Georgia that was decided by the Supreme Court the same day its Roe v. Wade ruling was issued. WND lets Cano uncritically claim that she didn't realize she was the plaintiff until after the Supreme Court ruling, that she had never asked for an abortion (though the ruling claims that Doe "was denied an abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy"), and is pro-life. Cano is also quoted as saying, "because of me abortion was created."
Well, no -- abortion had been around for a very long time before Doe v. Bolton ever existed. And even if Cano and WND are talking about "legal abortion." that existed as well, in about one-third of the states by 1973.
While a companion ruling to Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton more specifically overturned certain onerous clauses in Georgia abortion law, such as requiring an accredited hospital, two doctors and a hospital committee to sign off on the abortion, as well as that the woman seeking an abortion must be a Georgia resident.
The mysterious writer of the WND article (it's unbylined) went well beyond the established facts to present Cano's case. Then again, going well beyond the facts is what WND does.
