In its most recent town hall with Republican 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley, CNN gave Haley a national platform to spread abortion lies with little effective push-back from moderator and anchor Jake Tapper. 

On June 4, CNN held a town hall with Haley — the latest in a series of “Republican presidential town halls,” featuring GOP candidates such as Donald Trump, Haley, and Mike Pence. The town hall’s audience consisted of Iowa Republicans and other voters who intend to participate in the state’s Republican caucuses early next year. 

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court last June, CNN’s coverage surrounding abortion rights has often privileged right-wing talking points, many of which are based in misinformation. For example, CNN allowed Trump to spread multiple falsehoods about abortion in his own town hall, and has repeatedly given anti-abortion activists a national platform. In another instance, CNN failed to properly cover a groundbreaking case threatening access to the abortion pill mifepristone. 

This pattern of poor abortion coverage at CNN falls into a larger trend of the cable network turning increasingly right-wing in its political coverage. Following the company’s 2022 takeover by CEO Chris Licht, the outlet has given more voice to Republican politicians and given a pass to right-wing misinformation, especially as it pertains to 2020 election denialism. 

And with its latest town hall, CNN has once again given the stage to right-wing misinformation related to abortion policy, without following through with its obligation as a news outlet to correct misinformation on its airwaves. As the Haley and Trump town halls showed, CNN isn’t prepared to adequately debunk misinformation or to adapt to the format of town halls to keep falsehoods in check, even when moderators have good intentions. Here’s a look at the abortion misinformation CNN allowed Haley to spread, much to the contentment of right-wing media:

While discussing abortion at the town hall, Haley celebrated the reversal of Roe, stating that Roe resulted in “abortion anytime, anywhere, for any reason.” Despite this being far from the reality that Roe protected pre-viability abortion and required health exceptions for later in term abortions, Tapper failed to question Haley on this point. 

Later, when Haley commented, “I think we can all agree on banning late-term abortions,” Tapper had no immediate push-back to Haley’s problematic framing. “Late-term abortion” is a term with “no clinical or medical significance” constructed by right-wing media to vilify individuals receiving abortion care in the second or third trimester and paint this type of abortion care as extreme. Over time, as Planned Parenthood notes, anti-abortion advocates have moved the goalpost of what a “late-term” abortion means to legitimize banning abortion earlier and earlier, with some even referring to abortions at 15 weeks or 20 weeks as “late term.”

When asked by Tapper if she would support a six-week abortion ban, Haley instead pivoted to attacking the Biden administration, stating she would answer Tapper’s question when he asks “Kamala [Harris] and [Joe] Biden if they would agree to 37 weeks, 38 weeks, 39 weeks.” Tapper responded that both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “have been pretty clear that they don’t support any restrictions.” 

After Haley asserted that Biden and Harris support “abortion up until the time of birth,” Tapper conceded, “I don’t think that’s the language they use but yes, I mean they — theoretically, they don’t support restrictions.” Haley then ran with Tapper’s push-back turned affirmation, stating, “And I think that’s the kind of conversation we need to have is that they agree with abortions up until the time of birth, and most Americans do not agree with that.”

Contrary to Tapper’s assertion that Biden and Harris support restrictionless abortion, Biden has often emphasized his support of reinstating Roe’s precedent. After Roe was overturned in June of 2022, Biden remarked, “I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision as a matter of constitutional law.” When asked last year by a reporter if he supports abortion restrictions, Biden replied, “Yes. There should be,” and responding to a follow-up question on what they should be, Biden said, “Roe v. Wade. Read it, man. You’ll get educated.”