Pro-life medical experts rip media’s coverage of abortion: Not following ‘science’ but ‘political rhetoric’
The country is deeply divided on abortion, but most Americans support at least some restrictions on abortion, especially after the first trimester of pregnancy. Yet the media has consistently sided in the abortion debate by telling stories in pro-choice language.
After Florida and Kentucky passed abortion bans after 15 weeks of pregnancy last week, the media responded with outrage, calling pro-life laws harsh and extreme measures that will harm women.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace called these laws “a sign of rising extremism in the current version of the Republican Party.”
MSNBC’s Wallace Agrees With Democratic Legislature Banning Second Trimester Abortion “Extreme” “Grotesque’
Abortion rights activists protest outside the Supreme Court building over arguments in a Mississippi Dobbs abortion rights case against Jackson Women’s Health, in Washington, December 1, 2021 (REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst)
CNN correspondent Jessica Schneider lamented that Ron DeSantis, South Africa, was “the last Republican to withdraw abortion rights,” in Tuesday’s report. However, she commended Democrat governors Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich and Jared Polis, D-Colo., For enacting their own pro-choice laws to “fight off the fight” and “guarantee the right to abortion, no matter what the Supreme Court does.”
However, recent polls show that most Americans believe abortion should be illegal once in the second trimester, and 71% of Americans support abortion restrictions. A Wall Street Journal poll found more voters were in favor of a law banning abortion after 15 weeks than in favor of allowing the practice.
In drafting laws restricting abortion as dangerous for women, newspapers such as The Washington Post and CNN have praised abortion advocates and companies for providing “abortion care.”
Last week, The Washington Post and CNBC highlighted progressive companies that are working to provide “abortion medical care” for their employees.
Abortion rights activists protest outside the Supreme Court building over arguments in the Mississippi Dobbs abortion rights case against Jackson Women’s Health, in Washington, DC, December 1, 2021 (REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst)
Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell urged employers to follow progressive companies like Yelp and Uber by “covering travel expenses outside of state abortion care” and “offering to transfer workers and their families to states that respect women’s constitutional rights to reproductive autonomy.”
“Very rarely, if ever, the reality of what happens during an abortion is discussed by the media,” Dr. Christina Francis, a pro-life gynecologist / obstetrician, told Fox News Digital.
Instead, they use “unrealistic and euphemistic terms to conceal” the “reality of the situation,” she argued.
“In fact, the word” abortion “is often not even used. Instead, they say “reproductive health care”, “reproductive rights” or “reproductive justice.” Abortion is a brutal procedure that interrupts the natural process of pregnancy with one purpose in mind – ending the life of a developing human being, ‘added Dr. Francis.
Avoiding describing what abortion does, some media outlets ignore the scientific arguments from pro-life that support fetal heartbeat bills. When states like Texas passed the Fetal Heartbeat Act, media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, and NBC News mocked the idea that a baby had an early-stage heartbeat.
An April NBC News article asked, “Is there a fetal heartbeat in the sixth week of pregnancy?” Their report cited doctors who denied that an early heartbeat was really a heartbeat and instead “a lamp that generates occasional electrical pulses that eventually coordinate into rhythmic pulses.” CNN also used the derisive phrase “so-called heartbeat.
The New York Times likewise rejected the notion of an early heartbeat.
“But at this very early stage of pregnancy, the embryo is the size of a pomegranate seed and has only a primitive tube of heart cells that emit electrical impulses and pump blood,” reads the Times article.
Both news sites referenced the pro-choice ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), which orders the media to use plain and impersonal language when talking about pregnancy, abortion and the unborn.
Dr. Francis said the group had a “political agenda”, not “exact medical language,” and the media followed suit. “The ACOG’s sudden aversion to the word” heartbeat, “she said,” somehow only evolved after the SB8 was released in Texas.”
PRO-LIFERS REVERSE AS LEFTWORKS MANAGERS SCIENCE QUESTION ABOUT FETAL BEATING AFTER THE OBLIGATION TO ABORT IN TEXAS
Pro-life scientist Dr. Tara Sander Lee also harshly criticized the media as they tried to deny that the early heartbeat was actually a heartbeat.
“If the New York Times takes 1,800 words to convince readers that the developing organ that pumps a child’s blood isn’t really the heart, then the pro-life movement is winning,” Fox News Digital told.
Dr. Sander Lee, director of life sciences for the research group on the protection of life, The Charlotte Lozier Institute, says the media that try to deny this is not using science but “political rhetoric.”
“The heart is the first organ to form and function by pumping blood and oxygen through a developing person, and the first heartbeat begins approximately 22 or 23 days after conception. The fetal heart beats rhythmically from the 6th week of pregnancy, with an average heart rate of 100 beats per minute. This is science. Media such as the New York Times publishing on abortion is too often political rhetoric, ”said Fox News.
Planned Parenthood and pro-choice Emily’s List did not immediately respond to Fox News’ questions about how they perceive media coverage on the issue.
Pregnant woman (iStock)
WAPO, NYT, CNN CONTINUE REMOVING WOMEN WHEN REPORTING ON “PREGNANT PEOPLE” BY EXTREMING A HAND FROM THE FAR LEFT
A recent trend in some news sites is to replace women in pregnancy talks with the terms “pregnant” and “pregnant.”
The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News have been criticized for using a gender-neutral term.
The Washington Post was scorned for using the term “pregnant” in the article and for avoiding the reference to “women”. Likewise, NPR used the same tactics in a recent article warning against abortion ban in Florida, except for one mention of “women” which was in the quote. Last September, the NDP used the gender-neutral phrase seven times in one article, with no mention of “women.”
Dr. Sander Lee called on the media to repeat the “bad science” and “questionable research” of the abortion lobby instead of “following science” to provide accurate information to women.
“This is the same textbook that Big Tobacco used from the 1950s to the 1990s. A major abortion funds dubious research and then feeds this bad science with complicity to members of the mainstream media who either know nothing better or don’t know the concern of asking questions that might challenge their assumptions. It’s the opposite of following science and it hurts women, ”she wrote.
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A pro-life scientist cited a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article that claimed one abortion pill, Mifepristone, is “safer than Tylenol” as an example of media misinformation and “junk science.”
“This is a preposterous claim, completely unscientific and based on a very limited and unrelated study. However, the media continues to use this inaccurate, pro-abortion rhetoric, “she noted, adding that her research group had actually found that” the abortion pill and related emergency room visits increased by more than 500% between 2002 and 2015.”
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