The pro-life movement has had to contend with news media bias for decades. But within the past few years, the problem seems to have grown even worse.
Heartbeats are not heartbeats anymore. Unborn babies are unborn babies when a celebrity gets pregnant and celebrates, but fetuses when abortion is the issue. And killing unborn babies in elective abortions is both essential health care and a “choice.”
There are no experts on both sides of the issue either. Experts support abortion, while scientists, doctors, professors and lawyers who oppose killing unborn babies are biased anti-abortion activists who cannot be trusted — if they get quoted at all. What the pro-abortion side says is fact, and what the pro-life side says is questionable or just plain untrue.
Speaking with Breitbart this week, Texas Right to Life president John Seago expressed frustration and concern about the pervasive media bias because of how it is harming women’s and children’s lives.
The bias is nothing short of “deadly” for unborn babies, Seago said.
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“They say ‘it’s just a fetus,’ not a baby,” he told Breitbart. “They say ‘sporadic electrical impulses,’ not a heartbeat. They say ‘reproductive justice,’ not ending a human life.”
Many traditional news outlets “bend the truth” to try to convince Americans that the pro-life movement is “nothing but an anti-scientific, hate-filled conspiracy to control women,” when really the opposite is true, he continued.
Seago and others have serious concerns about how abortion activists’ lies hurt women, too.
Pregnant mothers in several states have reported being denied care for miscarriages and other life-threatening conditions even though state abortion bans allow such treatment. Doctors, pro-life leaders, state attorneys general and others have been working hard to inform doctors that abortion bans do not stop them from treating pregnant mothers in such cases, but abortion activists keep lying and many news outlets keep repeating the lies.
Seago said reporters “continue to misrepresent, misreport and uncritically quote confused doctors in their stories without question.”
Last week, Dr. Ingrid Skop, a Texas OB-GYN and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, expressed similar frustrations. She said pro-life laws protect mothers as well as unborn babies by allowing pregnant women to receive essential medical care for ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages and other cases when their lives are at risk.
“Yet no matter how many times we correct the record, pro-abortion activists continue spreading misinformation, confusing physicians and the general public,” Skop said. “These rhetorical games put women’s lives at risk and need to stop.”
The biased media obscures the true mission of the pro-life movement and puts unborn babies’ lives at risk, too.
For example, the Associated Press (AP), which publishes a guide for journalists on what language to use, tells reporters to describe pro-life advocates as “anti-abortion” even though the real focus of the movement is protecting life, not just banning abortions. Many pro-life organizations also work to protect lives from assisted suicide, euthanasia, medical rationing, infanticide and embryonic stem cell research.
Recently, the AP also added an entry to its style guide telling reporters to use the term “anti-abortion center” instead of pregnancy resource center or crisis pregnancy center. This also is misleading. While pro-life pregnancy centers do work to protect unborn babies from abortion, they also provide resources to mothers and fathers in need even if they are not considering abortion. Most offer post-abortion counseling, parenting classes, sex education, STI testing, maternity and baby supplies and other support services.
