Politicians can distort the truth

Recently, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke to the press regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision.

'We should be afraid of the court,” she said, 'that five guys should start determining what contraceptives are legal or not. … That court decision was a frightening one, that five men should get down to the specifics of whether a woman should use a diaphragm.”

Labeling the decision 'frightening” is an opinion, but stating that the court was determining what contraceptives were legal or whether a woman should use a diaphragm are falsehoods presented as facts. Neither of these issues were involved in this case.

By emphasizing the male sex of the majority, Pelosi appears to be sexist, implying that somehow men by their very nature are biased toward women's issues. She is forgetting that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision making abortion legal was decided 7-2 by an all-male court.

It can be difficult to understand issues when politicians on both sides often distort the truth to advance their own agenda.

I applaud The Gazette's efforts to investigate various political claims via the Fact Check column.

If only the rest of the press were so inclined, more voters might actually become informed rather than misinformed.

Rachel Ann Aalbers

Mount Vernon