Fox News' Abortion Questions During Democratic Town Hall Ignored Legal Rights For Women

During the March 7 Democratic Town Hall on Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier, host Bret Baier framed questions on reproductive rights around whether presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supported restrictions on reproductive choice while ignoring the recent legal restrictions on facilities that provide abortion services.

In Baier's first round of questions to Sen. Sanders (D-VT), Baier asked the candidate if he could name a “single circumstance at any point in a pregnancy at which point [Sanders] would be okay with abortion being illegal,” before Baier distinguished Sanders from “some Democrats” who advocate for exceptions “after five months, with the exception of the life of the mother or the health of the baby.”

Baier's question to Clinton on reproductive choice was equally problematic, asking her if “a child should have any legal rights or protections before it's born”:

Baier's questioning on "medically unnecessary" abortion restrictions come as reproductive rights have come under attack in many states by the Republican lead Congress.  Baier's framing of the issue is even more problematic given the lack of time dedicated to the subject in the Democratic presidential primary thus far. As NARAL Pro-Choice America points out, through 7 Democratic primary debates not a single question about abortion had been asked.