The newspaper in Providence, Rhode Island is getting kudos from the state pro-life group commending it for correcting recent misreporting on abortion and taxpayer funding of abortions.
The Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee (RIRTL) commends the Providence Journal for clarifying one serious error in its Sunday article about failed health benefits exchange legislation, and looks forward to further clarifications.
According to Rhode Island Right to Life Executive Director Barth E. Bracy, “While we understand that nobody likes being called to task for errors, we also believe that, in dealing with this matter of great public import, it is not unreasonable to expect the reporter to have read and accurately reported the one-paragraph prohibition about which she wrote nearly 30 paragraphs.”
RIRTL encourages the Journal to continue their review of the problematic article and to soon clarify the other three deficiencies noted in its press release yesterday.
Specifically, apart from the error already clarified, it was seriously misleading to report, as if an undisputed fact, the absurd claim, made by the local affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, that the Senate bill “goes significantly beyond federal law.”
“The real story here,” says Bracy, “the story it seems the Journal wants to play down, is that House Leadership failed to take any effective action whatsoever on a priority piece of legislation, and now seems content to let the Governor assume powers traditionally belonging to the Assembly.”
Finally, RIRTL believes the Journal should clarify the significant omission regarding the close ties between NARAL, a major national abortion lobby with a record of opposing abortion-funding prohibitions, and the Chafee administration.
“Ms. Freyer inexplicably failed to note the potential conflict Gov. Chafee and Director of Administration Richard Licht have, in the current dispute, as board members of NARAL. The article seems to portray Chafee as part of the solution to the problem,” says Bracy, “when we know that his administration worked against this legislation in the House.”
RIRTL believes it is reasonable to expect the Journal to report upon these other three other deficiencies noted yesterday, and we look forward to further clarifications in the days ahead.
