ABC left no stone unturned in its promotion of abortion on Wednesday, December 3.
Viewers received a double dose of pro-abortion propaganda from both ABC's news and entertainment divisions. World News with Charles Gibson aired an infomercial-style report on Planned Parenthood offering holiday gift certificates for health services at its
ABC News correspondent Gigi Stone framed her story about the Planned Parenthood certificates as a much-needed service project. She stated, “The organization says it's worried that in these tough times, more and more people will skip basic medical needs. One in six women in
Betty Cockrum, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, defended the organization's campaign. She declared, “It's about annual exams, it's about Pap tests, it's about birth control. And I would be amazed if a dime of this program goes to an abortion.”
Stone failed to ask the obvious follow-up question, “If these gift certificates are about health care, then why not restrict patients from using the certificates to pay for abortions?”
Since Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider, the answer would have been fascinating.
Stone did feature Sister Diane Carollo, director of the Office for Pro-Life Ministry for the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis, but her on-air report failed to identify Corollo as the director. The nun's position is noted in the companion article on the ABC News Web site.
Corollo alone pointed out the inherent hypocrisy of holiday gift certificates coming from the nation's leading abortion provider. She told ABC, “This campaign to offer lethal gift certificates that Planned Parenthood is engaging in right now is offensive. And it's offensive because Christmas is about the celebration of human life.”
Hypocrisy was evident on Private Practice too. The show's writers blatantly made the point that only women, and only pro-choice women, can speak about abortion. Ironically, the show is set in a fertility clinic.
Pro-abortion character Addison Montgomery can't believe her male colleagues aren't stridently pro-choice. In the middle of a discussion about their colleague Meg's decision to perform abortions,
Did the writers forget that it still takes a man and a woman to conceive a child?
In the episode Naomi, the lone pro-life female character, is portrayed as inarticulate about her views.
NAOMI: I run a fertility clinic. And I am in the business of helping women to get pregnant, not- .
MEG: Are you against choice?
NAOMI: I am not going to argue Roe v Wade with you. I am just saying they have never been done here and they should never be done here.
MEG: It's a valid medical procedure for women in need.
NAOMI: Not for me. And not for this practice.
In another conversation, after Meg is asked to consider the consequences her actions would have on the practice's reputation, Naomi again fails to articulate what forms her views:
NAOMI: Well, I fertilize eggs every day and I believe that life begins at conception.
VIOLET: So what, it's murder?
NAOMI: I believe what I believe.
In contrast, the Private Practice writers made sure both Violet and
Naomi's lack of conviction comes into play again when she encourages a quasi-pro-life colleague, Dell, to re-examine his own views on abortion after he reportedly “shamed” a patient into keeping her baby:
NAOMI: Dell?
DELL: You're anti-abortion.
NAOMI: I am. Unapologetically.
DELL: Do you think it makes a difference why women would want to have an abortion? Rape or—
NAOMI: I think it matters why it bothers you.
DELL: What do you mean?
NAOMI: Well, if you're against it for religious beliefs or personal beliefs that's one thing. God or something in your soul is trying to tell you something. I refused to even learn how to do the procedure in medical school. I couldn't. I just – I couldn't. But if abortion bothers you for other reasons –
DELL: What?
NAOMI: Look, I don't want to be responsible for swaying you to the other side.
DELL: What?
NAOMI: Did your child's mother, did she consider having an abortion? [Pause] You tried to talk her into getting one.
DELL: Yeah.
NAOMI: And now you look into your daughter's beautiful face and you feel guilty.
DELL: We went to the clinic and she wouldn't get out of the car. And I yelled at her. I yelled at her. And now, I just can't believe I yelled at her.
NAOMI: Then I think you're not against a woman's right to choose you're just punishing yourself for the choice you almost made.
A person with strong pro-life convictions would have encouraged Dell to use his own experience to help people. But with
Is ABC's wisest course of action to promote pro-abortion views when, as noted in CMI's National Cultural Values survey, only 8 percent of Americans believe it is “morally right?”
Colleen Raezler is a research assistant at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the
