Fake news is everywhere and the democratising force of the internet has lead to a distrust of hierarchical opinion.
People have had enough of experts.
Polls cannot be trusted, facts and stats have lost meaning and judgements made on emotion, fear or hate have been validated by their popularity.
This feels like a relatively modern phenomenon to most of us, but according to The Cut, medical professionals in the US have been reluctantly handling and distributing inaccuracies for a while now.
There is a pervasive anti-fact and anti-scientific stance that has made its way into law and therefore medical policy in the US.
Head of the family-planning division at Mt.Sinai in New York told The Cut, "I can't think of any other form of medicine where we are told to make things up. It's okay to do this only with regard to women's reproductive health."
An example of this is that the American Cancer Society and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have refuted the claim that there is a link between abortions and breast cancer, yet five states require doctors provide this information to their patients.
Other false claims that abortions cause infertility, depression, suicidal thoughts, and PTSD are forcefully distributed in various other states.
This is legally binding protocol which means if a medical professional refuses to give this fake information,they could lose their license.
Late-term abortions are a contentious issue, and you may have yourself been led to believe that foetus' can experience pain from 20 weeks.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have also refuted this claim, stating that the possibility of foetal-pain could only happen past the 27th week, in the third trimester.
Irregardless, this information is still passed on to pregnant women throughout the US.
In Utah specifically women undergoing a termination with a pregnancy at 20 weeks must take anaesthesia, for the foetus.
Carol Sanger is author of About Abortion and a legal a historian and he told The Cut, 'We are now in this post-truth age, where you take the facts you want and that's going to be good enough.'
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban was passed into federal law in 2003.
There is actually no such medical procedure as a partial-birth abortion and is a term made up by the National Right to Life Committee.
Late-term abortion is in fact called 'intact dilation and extraction', however emotive and ugly language has made it's way to the forefront of law and measured and intellectual debate to move people to act with emotions, not facts.
Though there have been some rulings, such as Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, to act as judicial roadblocks against abortion restriction acts such as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP), what has been shocking is how futile these attempts have been under two terms of such a radical and liberal president.
Plenty of harmful and unfounded rhetoric finds its way into unguarded people's ears and onto many screens, but what is terrifying is the thought that medical professionals, who are trained in facts and taught to support informed decision-making, are legally bound to lie to their patients at their most vulnerable.
Informed choice is at the heart of this issue, and misinformed choice is essentially no choice at all.
Join the ELLE team on the Women's March this Saturday to have your voice heard.
Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.
