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Fifty years after its Roe vs. Wade ruling, abortion remains one of the most hotly-debated issues in American politics. In fact, that’s one reason the five Supreme Court justices gave for overturning the ruling despite the principle of stare decisis: Abortion is hardly a settled issue after all these years.

The core question of the abortion debate — at what point during a pregnancy does “life” emerge for the purposes of the law and public interest– has no definitive answer. So it’s not surprising people debating it make claims that must be taken on faith. (In some cases, literally.)

But there are discernable facts in the debate over the Supreme Court’s ruling as well. Unfortunately, some opponents of the decision to dump Roe have been making claims that are simply factually untrue. Here are three that have been frequently repeated in the media and online since the 5-4 ruling was released.

The Supreme Court’s decision is “an assault on democracy.”

“This is not just a crisis of Roe, this is a crisis of our democracy,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) Sunday regarding the Supreme Court’s decision. At the Washington Post, the headline reads: “Scaling back abortion access is consistent with declining democracy.” And across Twitter, the phrases “ban abortion” and “outlaw abortion” are in frequent use.

Not true.

The Supreme Court didn’t “ban” anything. It didn’t make abortion legal or illegal. Instead, as the court said, “the authority to regulate abortion is...

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