by
Dave Pierre
November 6, 2007
LifeNews.com
Note: Dave Pierre is the creator of TheMediaReport.com and a contributor
to NewsBusters. This article first appeared on that Media Research
Center web site.
By grossly inflating the number of illegal abortions and the deaths
they caused, the Times has propagated abortion falsehoods yet again. Yet on Saturday (11/3/07), Tobar reported
that in the first six months since abortion was legalized, "more
than 3,400 women have received abortions at 14 of the capital's
public hospitals." Let's do some math. The 3,400 number covers the first six months
since legalization. At this pace, Mexico City's public hospitals will
perform about 7,000 abortions in one year's time. Seven thousand is 0.7% of one million. Tobar and the Times
apparently want us to believe that one million women a year
used to seek out dangerous, costly, and (almost entirely)
illegal abortions, yet now less than one percent of
that number will have a "safe," legal, and free
abortion over the same period of time in the capital's public hospitals?
(Abortions from private clinics in the city are not factored here.
But let's postulate that an equal number of abortions are performed
there. That would raise the percentage only to 1.4%.) (Greater Mexico
City is home to over 19.2 million people (2006 figure, source),
and according to Tobar, 40 percent of the population of Mexico (total
population: 108.7 million) is within a day's drive of the capital.) The Times and Tobar have some explaining to do. In his recent story, Tobar even acknowledged that many of the illegal
clinics have closed. "[L]egalization is bringing a profound,
if quiet, change to the way thousands of women lead their lives,"
beamed the gleeful Tobar. In addition, the Times also appears to have flagrantly exaggerated
the deaths from illegal abortions in Mexico. The April editorial from
the Times stated, "Thousands of poor women die every year
because of black-remedies and back-alley operations." In March, before the legalization, Tobar reported, "According
to studies here, about 2,000 to 3,000 Mexican women die every year
of complications from illegal abortions." In Saturday's article,
Tobar pumped up this figure: "According to one estimate, more
than 3,500 women died from botched abortions each year."
Tobar did not bother to tell us where his "one estimate"
came from. Yet the Times's and Tobar's claims seemed to be debunked by the Mexico's
Health Ministry. According to a
March 2007 article in the New York Times, "At least 88
women died in 2006 from botched abortions, the Health Ministry
says, though it is far from clear that all cases were reported."
So we have an official number of 88 ... versus ... an unidentified
"one estimate" of 3,500. (To be fair, in the March article,
the same one in which he used the "2,000 to 3,000," figure,
Tobar also cited a pro-life activist later in the piece who "said
the number of women who die in botched abortions nationwide each year
is less than 100." But Tobar has omitted this figure in a number
of articles since then.) Not cool, LAT. **NOTE: In the interest of brevity, I have posted only a portion
of this criticism of the Times's coverage. For the full
article, go to my personal site, TheMediaReport.com.
As unrestricted
first-trimester abortions were being made legal in Mexico City for the
first time this past April, the Los Angeles Times reported claims that
"up to 1 million Mexican women seek abortions every year"
and "thousands of poor women die every year" from illegal
abortions. However, recent reporting reveals that the capital's public
hospitals are now on pace to perform less than one percent of
that number of abortions in the first year of legalization.
