Americano Media has been pushing dangerous misinformation about abortion
So far in 2023, Americano’s hosts have been airing outrageous claims about a supposedly Satanic and eugenic “abortion industry”
Written by Leo Fernandez
Research contributions from Janos Balazs & Monica Rodriguez
Published
Despite Americano Media’s attempts to present itself as a “brand safe” network to prospective media buyers at NewFronts, it is anything but safe to brands, as it has built a network specialized in spreading misinformation, hate-filled rhetoric, and incendiary conspiracy theories to its audience.
As reported by Politico and The Washington Post, Americano Media is jockeying to become Fox News in Spanish and in its first year the network managed to peddle the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, argue that globalists are trying to usher in a new world order, and launch vicious attacks against the LGBTQ community.
Additionally, Americano’s coverage of abortion highlights the deeply unhinged worldviews of its hosts, who spread lies comparing reproductive health care to Satanic rituals and eugenics – steering the network away from their fact-first mission and directly into macabre fantasies typical of fever swamps like 4chan and Telegram.
Below are examples from Americano Media broadcasts that push claims about Satanism, eugenics, and mischaracterize Planned Parenthood as an abortion factory despite abortion only making up four percent of their medical services.
Claims that abortion is Satanic
A common narrative that hosts on Americano push is the idea that Democrats and elites support a Satanic agenda. Narratives invoking Satanism as a talking point are especially common on Americano’s radio shows when hosts discuss abortion, liken the procedure to a Satanic ritual, and argue that anyone who supports reproductive rights is aligned with Satanism. This narrative is also common among English-language right-wing media outlets and figures.
- The day after the Grammys, Dania Alexandrino condemned the “veneration” of artists like Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez, who she claims “support, prompt, and celebrate the murder of unborn babies in the womb and consider it a ritual.” She went on to claim that “the only blind veneration that should exist is admiration, veneration, and sacrifice for God. That’s all. If you venerate any of these artists that were there dancing, celebrating, and enjoying this ritual to Satan, you should get down on your knees and pray and supplicate and ask forgiveness for your sins.” [Hablando de Frente, 2/6/23]
- Alexandrino claimed that because The Satanic Temple supports abortion, anyone who advocates for abortions is also a Satanist. [Hablando de Frente, 2/2/23]
- Alexandrino ranted about STIs and claimed that the “idiot progressive Satanic Democrats” only care about protecting abortion instead of teaching people to live clean, find God, and wait until marriage. [Hablando de Frente, 1/13/23]
- Alexandrino claimed that those who do not agree that a fetus with a heartbeat “is life… have a diabolical and Satanic mind.” The argument that any pregnancy has a “heartbeat” at six weeks is scientifically flawed according to OBG-YN Dr. Jennifer Kerns, who said: “What we're really detecting is a grouping of cells that are initiating some electrical activity… in no way is this detecting a functional cardiovascular system or a functional heart.” [Hablando de Frente, 4/14/23]
- Alexandrino said that she believes Latinos are “confused and misled” into believing that their values align with the left but are starting to realize that Democrats support “Satanic causes” like “murdering children in the womb” and “the mutilation of minors” through gender transitions. [Hablando de Frente, 1/20/23]
Claims that abortion is eugenics
Another popular narrative found on Americano’s radio shows argue that abortion is a type of eugenics, drawing comparisons to Nazi Germany and using reproductive rights advocate Margaret Sanger’s misconstrued history to condemn Planned Parenthood. Americano Media’s English-language counterparts in right-wing media also often push this narrative.
- Freddy Silva, host of Entre Líneas, talked about “the eugenicist Margaret Sanger” to push the idea that Planned Parenthood and abortion in general are a means of enacting eugenics and population control. He went on to suggest that Planned Parenthood is also connected to “a movement… to sexualize children.” [Entre Líneas, 4/20/23]
- Silva’s guest Vanessa Vallejo, formerly a contributor for El American, compared reproductive rights in the U.S. to “what the Nazis did” and claimed that abortion is clearly being used “to get rid of the Black population.” She also says that “now they tell you that if you have a sick baby who has an ailment, you have to kill them.” [Entre Líneas, 1/31/23]
- Silva claimed abortion is not a choice about whether a person will become a mother, “because she is already a mother,” rather the choice is whether they will be the mother of “a living baby or a baby that has been murdered.” He went on to compare abortion to “genocide” and ask “how different are we” than those “who have committed genocides in centuries past” and “eugenicists.” [Entre Líneas, 4/7/23]
Claims that abortion is an industry
Americano also echoes English right-wing media narratives about Planned Parenthood, which suggests that Democrats are at the “beck and call of the abortion industry.” However, Americano’s hosts link this narrative to the oft-demonized Agenda 2030, connecting it to “globalist” missions and characterizing Planned Parenthood as a nefarious organization acting as a cog in a political machine supporting the reelection of progressive politicians, enacting Agenda 2030, and pushing abortion for financial gain.
- Jesus Marquez’s guest Mayra Rodríguez, a former Planned Parenthood employee turned anti-abortion activist, claimed there is a strong relationship between the Democratic Party, the pharmaceutical industry that produces abortion pills, and “the abortion industry,” which is why Democrats are pro-abortion advocates. Rodríguez added that Planned Parenthood is one of the largest campaign funders for Alexandra Ocasio Cortez and other Democrats. Therefore, they have to come out “to defend everything that affects their business.” [Battleground Americano, 4/10/23]
- Silva claimed that abortion is “a multimillion dollar industry” and is connected to “the progressive agendas … which we call Agenda 2030, the agenda of death.” [Entre Líneas, 3/20/23]
- Alexandrino’s guest, Padre Orlando Lugo claimed that “after they force them to have an abortion or deeply seduce them into having an abortion, thinking that abortion is the solution to the problem, they are forgotten. That is why true feminists are against abortion.” Lugo goes on to claim “the state abandons them because they don't really care about women. They care about making money through this industry and keeping people in power who believe in this just for the sake of power." [Hablando de Frente, 1/19/23]
- Marquez claimed that “the liberals, the progressives, have changed the language to advance their deadly agenda” and that “it is a deadly agenda because when they are seeking at all costs to kill a baby, not only inside the mother's womb, but also when the baby is already born, this is nothing more than an agenda of death and blood." Marquez’s guest Mayra Rodríguez claimed that “the problem and the issue here, my friend, is that they are neither defending women nor anyone else. They are defending an industry that you know contributes trillions of dollars, and we saw it in the midterms of this year, the billions of dollars that the abortion industry contributes — Planned Parenthood — to these politicians.” [Battleground Americano, 1/12/23]