The Chicago River isn’t a red river; Democrats didn’t dye it to celebrate abortion

Chicago celebrates St. Patrick’s Day by dyeing its namesake river green. Have Democrats dyed it red? 

With the Democratic National Convention underway, multiple X posts have claimed the Chicago River is running red in honor of abortion. 

"I thought this was fake but I looked it up and it is true," an Aug. 19 post said, sharing what looked like a news headline. "DNC has dyed Chicago River red to celebrate abortion." 

"Sick Democrats spend 30k dying Chicago River Red to celebrate ABORTION!" an Aug. 20 post said, misspelling "dyeing." 

"I don’t see how anyone could justify this," another said. "The #DNC2024CHICAGO dyed the river red to celebrate abortion."

Yet another claimed that the city of Chicago had dyed the river to celebrate abortion. 

"You can’t make this up," the Aug. 19 post said.

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Instagram posts

stated on December 17, 2024 in a photo

“A Coca-Cola truck filled with kids was found by police in Cicero, Illinois.”

But, of course, you can. 

All these posts shared images of what looks like a red Chicago River. 

These images were pulled from fabricated stories. 

One image came from satire site The Babylon Bee, which published an Aug. 19 post with the headline now sometimes being shared without context on social media: "DNC dyes Chicago River red to celebrate abortion."

Another image came from a blog post that uses some of the same language as the Bee story. At the bottom of the post it said, "Note: this is a parody article."

PolitiFact staff members are in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, which started Aug. 19 and ends Aug. 22, and they saw firsthand that the river sparkled in the sun on the first day in its natural, undyed state. 

We rate claims that Democrats dyed the river red to celebrate abortion Pants on Fire!