What the Media Won't Tell You About Abortion

By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation 

As a journalism student, I was taught never assume. Yet, as a radio reporter, when covering the issue of abortion, I assumed that my listeners knew the basics about abortion.

The huge irony here is that I myself did not have a fundamental knowledge of abortion--in other words, what it did to an unborn child, and what it could do to a mother, in terms of emotional and psychological after-effects.

By that I mean that, for a long time, I did not know that abortion stops a beating heart. I had no clue that, at just 24 days after conception, the baby's heart is beating. I wonder right now, in newsrooms across America, how many reporters know that important fact about a preborn child's development.

I did not know that, a mere 30 days after conception, a child has regular blood flow within his or her vascular system. I was clueless that, at 42 days after conception, the baby's skeleton is complete. And I had no inkling that, 43 days following conception, a little boy or girl's brain waves can be detected.

News stories do not include the amazing--I would say miraculous--course of fetal development. I suppose there are a number of reasons for this: it's not considered news, it could be construed as favoring the pro-life side, it represents too much biology for a news piece.

But the fact is, an unborn child's development is great news to many, many people. If merely explaining the facts biases an article to the pro-life side, then the pro-abortion side lacks credibility. And news reporters routinely include gory details in their reports, so a little biology wouldn't hurt.

The truth is that, on mere science alone, the pro-life argument can and should prevail. We have the facts on our side, and it is up to us to share that vitally important information with everyone--including the news media.

We owe it to preborn children and their mothers to do nothing less.

   

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Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

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