Media’s Pro-Abortion Bias Confirmed…Again

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 23, 2004

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A media watchdog group is accusing ABC News of biased coverage about abortion and the March for Life, where more than 100,000 people gathered to mourn the Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortion.

While ABC on Thursday night gave a few seconds of air time to Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark's clarification of his position in favor of abortion, it blacked out any coverage of the March for Life.

Instead, ABC's web site featured two articles with a decidedly pro-abortion viewpoint, notes Jessica Anderson of the Media Research Center.

"'Christian Terrorists': Anti-Abortionist Calls for Violence, Says It Is Religious Duty," proclaimed one headline on the ABC web site while "A Global Abortion War" was the other.

"For the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, ABC News chose to cast the pro-life movement in the most negative slant it could scrounge up on its Web site, and completely ignore it all together on the air the night before, morning of and day of, the annual March for Life," said MRC's Anderson.

The article on abortion-related violence "highlighted the bizarre rantings of Chuck Spingola on the Army of God Web site and the few people on the farthest fringe of the pro-life movement," Anderson explained.

ABC reporter Dean Schabner opened his piece: "An anti-abortion activist, calling for a new wave of violence against clinics and doctors, is following the example of violent Islamic fundamentalists, telling those who share his views to become 'Christian terrorists' and promising them a reward in Heaven."

Schabner quoted Mark Potok of the pro-abortion Southern Poverty Law Center, who claimed, "The hard-liners have become more and more hard-line, and I think they've lost most of their appeal even with the Christian right, which might share some of their views."

Anderson retorted, "As if Spingola and any of the handful of nutcases supporting violence against abortion providers bear any relation to mainstream pro-lifers."

Anderson points out contradictory statements by ABC's Schabner in an attempt to paint pro-life advocates as supporters of violence and, at the same time, acknowledge that abortion-related violence is on the decline.

Schabner writes that "extreme violence against abortion providers has dropped sharply over the last two years," but later says "there has been no decline in the harassment of doctors and staff at clinics and women visiting clinics."

Meanwhile, the second biased ABC News web site story on abortion took President Bush to task for his Mexico City Policy, which disallows taxpayer funding of groups that perform or promote abortions in other countries.

The story featured a photo of an unidentified African woman with the caption which conveyed the flavor of the story: "A U.S. rule on family planning aid is adversely affecting women across Africa and Asia, some health professionals say."

"Those 'health professionals' turn out to be from pro-abortion groups such as the Margaret Sanger Center International at Planned Parenthood of New York City and the Center for Reproductive Rights," Anderson explained.

ABC News reporter Leela Jacinto, in the article, writes, "It was a decision Nirmal Bista never really wanted to make: a choice between money and principles, shutting up or sticking it out, and most harrowingly, one that involved the lives -- and potential deaths -- of millions of his countrywomen."

Anderson said the piece leaves readers thinking Bush's pro-life policies are to blame for women dying from abortions around the world.

ACTION: Email ABC News at netaudr@abc.com to express your displeasure at their biased coverage.