By Ben Johnson

Arriving roughly 20 minutes later than announced, a frenetic President Joe Biden delivered his fourth, and potentially last State of the Union address on Thursday night. His voluminous, staccato, and aggressive remarks previewed a 2024 presidential campaign centered on expanding abortion nationwide, restricting the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and casting his political foes as an incipient, existential threat to democracy and the United States itself. In just over an hour, Biden spoke a number of lies, false assertions, and dubious statements worth reviewing for the record.

1. The Phantom Ban on IVF

“The Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF treatments across the state, unleashed by a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Biden has invented a phantom ban on in vitro fertilization, or IVF, because the Alabama Supreme Court did not ban IVF. The case in question revolved around a grieving family who had conceived and stored unborn children at a fertility clinic, but the clinic’s poor security allowed someone to wander in and drop the babies on the floor, killing them. The court’s 8-1 ruling decided the parents of children negligently destroyed in IVF clinics could file a civil case, suing for damages under the state’s 1872 Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The destruction or abandonment of embryos is the norm, rather than the exception, of the practice. Typical IVF procedures regularly implant multiple embryos into the mother, or surrogate, then selectively abort weaker and less viable babies. Others are conceived and left in storage indefinitely. As Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, has noted, “93% of the embryos created through IVF never result in a live birth.” The Alabama Supreme Court decision said nothing about whether that should be legal.

2. ‘Restoring’ Roe v. Wade, or Expanding Abortion?

“If you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again.”

Since the Dobbs decision upended four decades of judicial activism, Joe Biden has repeatedly stated Congress needs to “codify” Roe v. Wade into law. Yet the extreme bill his administration has endorsed, the so-called “Women’s Health Protection” Act, goes far beyond the provisions of Roe v. Wade. The sweeping, top-down national legislation would impose abortion on the nation and strike down more than 1,300 state pro-life laws, erasing nearly every protection, including laws

• prohibiting sex-selective abortions;
• barring many abortions after viability;
• preventing abortions on babies 20 weeks or older, who are capable of feeling pain;
• disallowing abortions undertaken without parental consent or notification;
• prohibiting telemedicine abortion drug prescriptions, which involve no in-person medical examination;
• banning unlicensed individuals from carrying out abortions;
• allowing pregnant mothers to receive scientifically accurate information about their babies’ development, or to see an ultrasound or hear the child’s fetal heartbeat; and
• allowing pro-life medical professionals the right to refuse to participate in an abortion.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the address should serve as a wake-up call for those who support the right to life. “Pro-life America: You just heard with your own ears what is at stake in this election — the unborn. Biden is committed to eradicating every state pro-life law in America.” Other evangelical Christian leaders agreed. “The Democrats were saying tonight … that they want to put the right to kill children at the top of their agenda. The reason for that is the wickedness of their hearts,” Pastor Robert Jeffress told Fox News Night’s Trace Gallagher. “When it comes to protecting children, there’s no difference between Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Hamas.”

“They’re all barbarians,” Jeffress said.

3. Kate Cox’s Life Was ‘at Risk’ without an Abortion?

“Kate Cox, a wife and mother from Dallas. She’d become pregnant again, and had a fetus with a fatal condition. Her doctor told Kate that her own life and her ability to have children in the future were at risk if she didn’t act.” (Emphasis added.)

Doctors did not tell Kate Cox her pregnancy threatened her life; indeed, that was the entire crux of the case. Texas’ heartbeat law permits a woman to have an abortion if she faces the “risk of death” or “serious risk of [the] substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” Cox sued for an injunction against the law because, tragically, her child had a life-threatening condition, and she faced real — but not life-threatening — complications from the pregnancy. The Texas Supreme Court ruled last December that Cox’s physician, Damla Karsan, had actually “asked a court to pre-authorize the abortion yet she could not, or at least did not, attest to the court that Ms. Cox’s condition poses the risks the [law’s] exception requires.” Kate Cox had an abortion in another state.

4. Abortion as a ‘Treatment’ for Fetal Anomalies and Rape Victims

“Kate [Cox] and her husband had to leave the state [of Texas] to get what she needed. … There are state laws banning the freedom to choose, criminalizing doctors, forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states to get the treatment they need.”

Abortion is not a treatment for a pregnancy caused by rape or incest, nor for children with negative fetal diagnoses, because a baby is not a disease and death is not a cure. Many bioethicists argue that abortion is never necessary for medical reasons. “As a board-certified OB-GYN practicing for over 30 years in Texas, delivering over 5,000 babies, I have never had to intentionally kill my unborn patient in order to protect his mother,” said Dr. Ingrid Skop of the Charlotte Lozier Institute in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand. Neither premature delivery for a mother in a high-risk pregnancy, nor the most common forms of treatment for an ectopic pregnancy (salpingostomy and salpingectomy), are classified as abortions, because they are undertaken with the intention to save the mother’s life, while abortion intends to kill the child. Often, the unborn child in the fallopian tubes has already died before the procedure takes place. The abortion industry has also capitalized on the fact that the treatment for a miscarriage, Dilation and Curettage (D&C), shares the same name as an abortion procedure. But a D&C carried out after a miscarriage does not, and cannot, take the life of the unborn child; abortion stops a beating heart.

Furthermore, children conceived in rape are rarely acknowledged as human. “When my rapist got me pregnant, almost everyone I knew immediately said ‘abortion’ like there was no other option,” revealed one rape victim. “I kept her and I’m raising her, and she is the BEST thing to ever happen to me.” (Emphasis hers.) The same holds for children (rightly, or often wrongly) diagnosed with having a terminal condition. Beverly Jacobson told TWS she rejoices that she did not abort her daughter, Verity, who was accurately diagnosed with Trisomy 18 in the womb. “Despite pushback from our medical staff, we chose life. Verity just turned seven years old. She brings us so much delight, and we love her fiercely,” Jacobson told TWS.

5. President Donald Trump Supports a ‘National Abortion Ban?’

“Many of you in this chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom. My God, what freedoms [sic] would you take away?”

Although President Donald Trump is said to have privately mused that he likes the idea of protecting unborn life after 15 weeks, he has yet to announce any national pro-life legislation that he would enact in a second term. Only 6% of all abortions take place after 15 weeks — so this “national abortion ban” would allow at least 94% of all abortions. And after that late date, Trump favors exceptions for rape and incest. Nearly three out of four (72%) Americans — including 60% of Democrats, 70% of registered independents, and 75% of women — believe abortion should not be allowed after 15 weeks, according to a Harvard/Harris poll.

6. Universal Pre-K Gives Children ‘a Good Start’?

“I’d, like I’d suspect all of you, want to give a child, every child, a good start by providing access to preschool for 3- and 4-years-old.”

The proposal to establish universal daycare, dubbed “Universal Pre-K,” is an old one raised by Barack Obama in many of his State of the Union addresses. Joe Biden included a universal pre-K program for children beginning at age three in his $6.9 trillion proposed 2024 budget last March.

There are at least two problems with the proposal. First, preschool does not provide children with as much of a “good start” as the natural love and affection of their parents. As British researcher Penelope Leach noted, the social and developmental outcomes for children raised by anyone other than their mother “is definitely less good.” Over decades, studies have repeatedly confirmed that children raised in daycare facilities have higher levels of aggression, hyperactivity, stress, cortisol levels, and behavioral issues, while experiencing lower levels of emotional and physical health and reduced impulse control. These results hold up regardless of quality of care the daycare facility provides. Even the much-touted federal Head Start program “had little to no positive effects for children who were granted access,” noted a report from Obama-Biden administration’s HHS. 

Moreover, polls show most women do not want their children raised by strangers in daycare facilities, federally funded or otherwise. The Gallup poll organization reports that it has “consistently found that the majority of working mothers would prefer to stay at home and take care of their house and family.” Eight out of 10 Americans agree the ideal situation is for the mother not to work, or to work part-time, according to the Pew Research Center.

Critics point out that turning infants and toddlers over to government-run facilities at ever-younger ages opens up children to more effective indoctrination. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said universal pre-K could “make sure every child, before they are four years old, is indoctrinated on abortion, LGBTQ ideology, and climate change.”

7. ‘Lincoln Riley’ and Illegal Immigration

Joe Biden’s prepared remarks did not include the words “Laken Riley,” the name of the 22-year-old Georgia college student murdered by an illegal immigrant. However, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) invited her parents to the State of the Union, and, in the middle of his address, fellow Georgian Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted that Biden should say her name in the middle of his address.

“Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed. By an illegal,” replied Biden in an impromptu back-and-forth with Greene. “But how many thousands of people are being killed by legals?”

Biden obliquely cited highly-contested research alleging that illegal immigrants have a lower violent crime rate than legal citizens. The hair-splitting academic argument is irrelevant to the issue: If the young woman’s Venezuelan murderer had not been in the country illegally, Riley, like countless others, would still be alive.

“Guarding the border is an important issue, and it’s a biblical issue,” said Pastor Robert Jeffress after the address.

8. Are His Opponents ‘Banning Books’?

“Stop denying another core value of America: our diversity across American life. Banning books — it’s wrong!”

Joe Biden has repeatedly accused concerned parents of “banning books.” But the facts tell another tale. Moms and dads nationally have asked school districts to remove inappropriate, often pornographic, texts from school libraries — and asked community libraries to move them to the adult section. Children are not legally allowed to access pornography, or attend an R-rated movie unaccompanied by an adult. This is a far cry from the 1930s-era Germany Biden’s rhetoric conjures up.

9. The ‘Equality Act’ Deserves Support?

“Pass the Equality Act, and my message to transgender Americans: I have your back.”

The so-called Equality Act would add sexual preference and transgender identity to national civil rights legislation, elevating mutable lifestyle choices to the same level as race, sex, and religion. It would remove the rights of Christian (and traditional Jewish) business people to do business and effectively “finish off religious freedom in America,” said Perkins.

10. Biden Has Created a Safer Nation with Less Crime?

“America is safer today than when I took office. … Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history. Violent crime fell to one of its lowest levels in more than 50 years.”

“Is America safer?” asked Tony Perkins. “Only in the Left’s make-believe world. Violent crimes against young people have actually doubled. Motor vehicle thefts are up 105% since the pandemic — as even members of Congress have fallen prey to carjackings. The murder rate is up as much as 30% in places like the nation’s capital and about 18% overall.”

11. Democracy Is under Attack?

“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today. What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas at the very same time.”

Democracy faced a far greater internal threat during the Cold War. Communist spies and traitors such as Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, Lauchlin Currie, and the Rosenbergs burrowed into sensitive government, largely under the administration of Democratic presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. And they carried out the orders of, or gave vital information, to totalitarian Marxists who genuinely sought global domination and the eradication of faith and freedom. Yet Biden mentioned “January 6” three times by name — three times as often as he mentioned murder victim Laken Riley. And he referred to “my predecessor” 13 times.

Biden also made unsupported accusations of “voter suppression” and “election subversion.” He likely has in mind election integrity measures such as voter ID, which he has castigated as “Jim Crow 2.0” and “Jim Eagle.” Yet in states which enacted these measures, such as Georgia, voting increased substantially. Voting in Georgia’s 2022 midterm election rose by around 200% over 2018 levels.

The speech’s labored emphasis on the issue of “democracy,” Tony Perkins said, portends a 2024 presidential election comprised of a never-ending loop of “January 6, abortion, attack on democracy ….”

12. Did Biden Cut the National Deficit by $1 Trillion?

“We’ve already cut the federal deficit by over a trillion dollars.”

Biden has repeatedly used this misleading statistic. The national deficit, or annual budget shortfall, hit its highest level in modern times during the COVID-19 lockdowns. With businesses closed by government edict, tax revenues predictably plunged. However, the Biden administration has maintained and increased COVID-era spending levels. Biden’s spending has piled up a massive $34 trillion national debt — a rough increase of 24% in three years.

13. Do Poor Children Enter School Hearing a Million Fewer Words than Average?

“Children coming from broken homes where there’s no books, not read to, not spoken to very often, start school — kindergarten or first grade — hearing, having heard a million fewer words spoken.”

The actual figure in the study Biden is citing is not one million words; it is 30 million words. However, as NPR explained, that “number comes from just one study, begun almost 40 years ago, with just 42 families,” and it cannot be replicated.

14. Progressivism Will Save ‘the Soul of Our Nation’?

“Again and again I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation, between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future.”

Biden is correct that there is a battle for the soul of America, and its people, but he gets the answer wrong. Salvation comes through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who created, fashioned, and sanctified the human soul through His life, death, and resurrection — not from government programs enacted by any president or political party.

These are but an overview, not a comprehensive list, of Biden’s fibs, misstatements, and outright malarkey in the 2024 State of the Union address. “Just think,” said Perkins, “President Biden told these ‘tales’ while looking at the portrait of Moses over the doors of the House chamber.”

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.