Image showing woman holding pro-abortion rights sign next to child is altered | Fact check
The claim: Image shows woman holding sign for abortion rights with her daughter
A Nov. 21 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes an image showing a woman standing next to a young girl and holding a sign that says “I want my daughter to have the right to abortion that I didn’t have.”
On-screen text in the image reads, “When your mom is ‘subtly’ saying she doesn’t love you."
It was shared more than 1,500 times in 11 days. Other versions of the claim spread widely on Facebook and Instagram.
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Our rating: Altered
The message on the sign has been altered. The original sign was written in Spanish and translates to “I am the mother of the girl you will never touch.”
Photo was from 2023 women's rights march in Mexico
The claim came weeks after millions of people voted on abortion rights measures around the United States. Abortion rights have been governed at the state level since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
But the pro-abortion rights sign in the image circulating on social media isn't authentic.
It’s an altered version of a photo included in a March 2023 article published by La Casa de Todas y Todos, a Mexico-based website. The article describes an annual women's rights march that took place earlier that month in Monterrey, the capital of the Mexican state of Nuevo León.
The woman’s sign says “Soy mamá de la niña que jamás vas a tocar,” which translates to “I am the mother of the girl you will never touch.” Neither the woman nor the child was named in the photo's caption.
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Paste BN has debunked an array of altered images, including those that purport to show a legitimate photo of Mexico’s president-elect, Taylor Swift holding a banner in support of President-elect Donald Trump, and Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posing with a communist sign.
Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
AFP, Full Fact and PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources
- Google, accessed Nov. 30, Google Translate
- La Casa de Todas y Todos, March 24, 2023, Las mujeres regias en la lucha feminista y anticapitalista
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