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GQ Magazine was heavily criticized Thursday after an article that claimed the anti-abortion movement is rooted in racism incorrectly stated that former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a notorious segregationist, was a Republican.
"Before Roe, Republicans and white evangelicals generally supported abortion rights, much in the way libertarians do now, because to them it meant fewer mothers and children dependent on the government for support," author Laura Bassett wrote.
Her next sentence initially read: "George Wallace, the longtime Republican governor of Alabama, four-time presidential candidate..."
The updated version acknowledged Wallace's Democratic affiliation.
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"George Wallace, the longtime governor of Alabama, a Democrat who would later join the far-right American Independent Party, four-time presidential candidate, and outspoken segregationist who is often compared to Donald Trump, backed the legalization of abortion in the late 1960s because he claimed black women were “breeding children as a cash crop” and taking advantage of social welfare programs," she said.
Bassett did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
"This piece is hilariously awful," conservative author Ben Shapiro tweeted, before pointing out the Wallace error.
The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis tweeted: "LOL at you thinking George Wallace was a Republican and making that the foundation of your entire stupid premise."
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National Review's Alexandra DeSanctis, who often writes about abortion and related issues, suggested Bassett was trying to deflect from the truth about abortion.
"Even if this piece weren’t rife with errors and omissions — like, for instance, the fact that white supremacists and racists are actually notoriously pro-abortion — it says a lot that no one actually wants to talk about whether the pro-life case against abortion is correct," DeSanctis said. By Thursday afternoon, "George Wallace" was trending on Twitter and garnered more than 3,000 tweets.
Bassett defended herself, in part, by arguing that Wallace's political affiliation wasn't relevant to the story.
Others were skeptical. "Lol the wild part about this is that it wasn't just a typo or passing error," Federalist editor Emily Jashinsky tweeted.
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"In the context of the full paragraph, she's using Wallace as an example of broader GOP trends... meaning she really believed he was a Republican and GQ really didn't catch the mistake."
Many Twitter users pushed back against the criticism. on conservative criticism.
"No, George Wallace wasn't a Republican," Princeton University history professor Kevin Kruse tweeted, "but he did offer to switch parties in 1964 if only [Republican nominee Barry] Goldwater would make him his running mate."
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"People are dunking on this but a) it's an honest mistake and B) there's an important point to be made here," tweeted Washington Post assistant editor Eric Michael Garcia, who added. "The first time many Southerners didn't vote for a Democrat was when he [Wallace] ran as an independent."
In September 1995, three years before his death, Wallace endorsed Republican Bob Dole for president in an interview with The Associated Press. In the same interview, Wallace said he had voted for George H.W. Bush in 1992 and added that Alabama was "slowly going Republican because of [Bill] Clinton being so liberal."
The last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Alabama was Jimmy Carter in 1976.
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