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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. (AP) Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. (AP)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. (AP)

Samantha Putterman
By Samantha Putterman December 19, 2018

Elizabeth Warren did not say women should be raped by Muslims to 'prove our tolerance'

There are some bizarre stuff that gets posted on the internet, but one meme involving Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren takes it to another level.

An image of the Massachusetts senator recently appeared on Facebook, and attributes her to the following quote: "If women need to be raped by Muslims to prove our tolerance, so be it. Then thank goodness for Planned Parenthood."

The words, "this is why we cannot allow lawmakers like this to be re-elected," is also written across the image.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

This quote is flat out fake.

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Quote pulled out of thin air

The faux quote appears to have first surfaced on social media in January 2017.

There is no source provided with the meme, and we found no record of statements made by the senator that matched or paraphrased the comment.

We were also unable to locate a single media report on what would have been an extremely newsworthy quote by a U.S. senator.

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Warren has been an outspoken advocate for Planned Parenthood and has voiced her support of  Syrian refugees resettlement in the United States. The meme appears to have been fabricated to solely spread misinformation and diminish Warren’s credibility.

Our ruling

A meme attempts to link Warren to an offensive quote that said "If women need to be raped by muslims to prove our tolerance, so be it. Then thank goodness for Planned Parenthood."

Warren did not say that and the quote appears to be entirely fabricated. We found no instances of Warren (or anyone else) saying those words.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

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Pants on Fire
Quotes Sen. Elizabeth Warren as saying "If women need to be raped by Muslims to prove our tolerance, so be it. Then thank goodness for Planned Parenthood."
In a Facebook post
Tuesday, December 18, 2018

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Elizabeth Warren did not say women should be raped by Muslims to 'prove our tolerance'

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