It's no secret that women's magazines promote liberal agendas but "Glamour" magazine's March issue features a blatant abortion propaganda piece.
Billed as "The Serious Health Discussion Women Aren't Talking About," the article attempted to go beyond the political aspect of the abortion debate and delve into the personal side of the issue. The sub-head stated, "Whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, now is the time for more openness and understanding."
Author Liz Welch wrote, "Every woman who faces that abortion decision deserves a friend's arms around her - as well as factual, unbiased information about what lies ahead. Let the plainspoken stories and advice on these pages open the dialogue."
The stories and advice are clear: abortion is an a-ok option.
For starters, the article featured no women who chose to carry their pregnancies to term despite difficult circumstances such as health risks, likelihood of birth defects, bad timing or lousy relationships.
The 10 personal stories highlighted throughout the piece all centered around women who chose abortion. One woman told "Glamour" that she had "no guilt" after her abortion. Another, who is currently pregnant, said she doesn't "have any regrets" about her two abortions. Yet another said she is "wistful about losing the physical sensation of being pregnant" and that she and her husband "want to have a baby one day - but it will be planned."
Only four women featured acknowledged the emotional fallout from their abortions. One told "Glamour" she felt "like a murderer" after aborting her pregnancy for health reasons and admitted that "emotionally, it was hell." Welch briefly related how another woman's two abortions led to drug abuse, depression and regrets. It was through an "abortion recovery bible study" that she "came to a place of acceptance."
Welch set the tone of her piece by describing 25-year-old Anna's abortion experience. Afterward, Welch wrote that Anna smiled "a bit" and said, "That was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be."
Dr. Deborah Oyer, who performed Anna's abortion, told Welch, "I hear that refrain almost daily when I perform abortions. It's as if women expect me to come at them with whirling knives."
Oyer also portrayed pro-life activists as hypocrites."I've seen every type of woman in my office, from Catholics to Muslims to mothers with three kids," she said. "I've even seen someone I recognized - because I'd seen her before, protesting outside my clinic."
Welch noted that many organizations offer counseling for women who are thinking about abortion or who would like to talk about their experiences with abortion. However, Welch failed to disclose that these organizations, Backline, Hope Clinic, Faith Aloud and Exhale, appear to have close ties to abortion activists groups. Each organization provides links to chapters of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider.
Welch might have mentioned Care-Net, "the largest network of pregnancy centers in North America," an organization that that seeks to help women through unplanned pregnancies. Among post-abortive organizations, she might have listed Rachel's Vineyard, a ministry of Priests for Life that hosts weekend retreats for women and men to work through their post-abortive feelings.
"Glamour" has a pattern of simply accepting the agenda of abortion supporters. Back in October 2008, "Glamour" interviewed presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain about their stances on various issues, including abortion. McCain was grilled about his pro-life stance in the following questions:
I want to ask about reproductive rights. Twenty-three percent of your pro-choice female supporters believe that you are for a woman's right to choose abortion, which is not accurate. Can you explain your position on abortion? Do you believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned?
If Roe v. Wade were overturned and the decision went back to the states, and some of the states criminalized abortion, in the case that an abortion is performed, who should go to jail, if anyone?
Last year you said that the Republican platform on abortion should change so that it did include an exception for cases of rape and incest and to save the life of the mother ... Is that still something that you believe?
Would you encourage that platform to be changed this summer at the convention?
One reader noted that you've called abortion a "human tragedy," and you've proposed strengthening organizations that provide services and support to pregnant mothers in need. If elected president, do you have a specific plan to do that?
Obama, who supports abortion, got these softballs:
Is support for Roe v. Wade a litmus test for you in appointing a Supreme Court justice?
I read that 51 percent of women in battleground states say they don't know enough about John McCain's position on abortion to decide if they agree with them. Will you be publicizing his views?
Post-abortive women should be able to talk about their experience and should be treated with compassion, as Welch notes repeatedly in her article. But compassion can be found in pro-life organizations as well as those with pro-choice ties.
And if "Glamour" was serious about "opening the dialogue," about abortion, it might have given at least some space to the blessings that can result from an unexpected pregnancy.
"Glamour" shortchanged its readers by only providing one side of this issue.
