But for her words to rise to the level of an extraordinary ‘big lie,’ a vicious slander of abortion providers everywhere, it seems to me that something more than this kind of misdescription would need to be in play. If the scene in question literally did not exist, which is what the language of her critics consistently suggests — if Fiorina had conjured up a vision of an intact fetus with a working heart and twitching limbs having its brains harvested out of her hyperactive pro-life imagination — well, that would merit liberal shock and outrage. But she didn’t conjure or invent it: It’s very easy to figure out what scene she’s talking about, and the discrepancies between what’s in the documentary and her description aren’t wild or incredible or weird. There’s no fabrication here, in other words, and what Lithwick calls ‘the big lie about the kicking fetus and the brain harvesting’ is a basically-accurate summary of what the film actually shows. (A twitching, dying fetus? Check. A firsthand description of harvesting a brain from an intact fetus? Check again.)

— Ross Douthat. This kerfuffle has done more than anything ever has to convince me that many supporters of unrestricted abortion are simply and genuinely incapable of acknowledging what happens in an abortion.