Democrats Mangle AP Fact Check on DeSantis Checking High-School Menstrual Cycles

Tim Graham
February 6th, 2023 7:32 AM

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"Fuzzy Chimp" at Twitchy pointed out that leftists mangled an accurate Associated Press fact check correcting the false notion that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is mandating all female high-school athletes in the state to provide detailed information about their menstrual cycles.

So credit the AP, and wonder why on Earth someone like Nina Turner, a Democrat who ran for statewide office in Ohio, would tweet this: 

In the new Twitter, it has a note appended:

Readers added context they thought people might want to know

This screenshot is of an AP article which is fact-checking the claim outlined in the shown headline. The AP assessed the claim as false.

Twitchy noted she wasn't alone. This boob came first: 

Ed Krassenstein and his brother Brian had received a permanent ban from Twitter in 2019 for trying to use fake accounts to increase the power of their anti-Trump trolling. 

AP's Philip Marcelo explained what the leftists were mangling, and quoted Krassenstein in his piece:

CLAIM: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is requiring all female student-athletes in the state to provide detailed information about their periods in order to compete in organized sports.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The Florida High School Athletic Association is weighing the recommendation from an advisory committee, but no final decision has been made. DeSantis’ education commissioner is a member of the association’s board of directors and the commissioner also appoints three others, but the association is a private nonprofit organization, not a state agency under the purview of the governor’s office.

....Florida currently asks female high school athletes to provide information about their menstrual cycle on health forms required to participate in sports, but it is not mandatory.

Ryan Harrison, the association’s spokesperson, confirmed the new recommendations were developed by its sports medicine advisory committee and approved in late January. It will now be considered by the association board of directors at its next meeting in Gainesville from Feb. 26-27.

It's easy to understand why this sounds controversial and intrusive. But Twitchy added details:

The current form designates these questions as ‘Optional’. We at Twitchy looked at a number of similar forms from other states. The majority we viewed included the same or similar questions and did not designate them as ‘Optional’.

We sampled forms from Ohio, New Jersey, Washington, Delaware, North Carolina, Nevada, California, Alabama, and Arizona. Most other states likely have similar forms because they’re all following guidelines from national organizations, just like Florida.

AP quotes Sefcik, a member of the Florida sports-medicine advisory committee, insisting the new policy is "consistent with national guidelines for sports physicals developed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Sports Medicine and other groups."

The national guidelines say menstrual history is an “essential discussion for female athletes” because period abnormalities could be a sign of “low energy availability, pregnancy, or other gynecologic or medical conditions.”

“Menstrual dysfunction is 2-3 times more common in athletes than nonathletes, and 10-15% of female athletes have amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycle) or oligomenorrhea (a decrease in number of menstrual cycles per year),” the guidelines read. “Amenorrhea occurs more frequently in players of sports that emphasize leanness, such as running, gymnastics, cheerleading, dance, and figure skating.”

Usually, the "progressives" are very amenable to medical organizations, and would suggest the right-wingers hate Science.

But Twitchy adds one important detail on the proposed new medical forms. They state "This medical history form should be retained by the healthcare provider and/or parent," not by the schools. 

In fact, the only form in Florida’s new proposed package that must be retained by the school is the Medical Eligibility Form, stating that the student athlete participated in the pre-participation physical evaluation and assessment under the supervision of a qualified healthcare professional.

LESS medical information would be provided to Florida schools under the proposed forms package.

This would ruin the "Authoritarianism, Full Stop" horror show.