WashPost Gives Tiny Pro-Abortion Crowd Equal Billing to Thousands of Pro-life Marchers

Any liberal with two eyes can see that tens of thousands of activists turn out every year in Washington for the March for Life. By contrast, abortion advocates have a turnout on the Supreme Court steps that couldn’t fill a classroom. In their only story on Tuesday (on the bottom of the Metro section front page), the Post once again treated these two groups as equally newsworthy -- except one side was indoctrinating its youth in "antiabortion ideology."

I saw a cluster of about eight or ten “feminist majority” signs yesterday that could have been easily missed. But the Post centered its online photo montage on the feminists and pro-lifers yelling at the feminists.

The standout online may have been the religious sister pointing a finger and looking fierce. "Sister Fran of the Salesian Sisters in Newton, N.J., criticizes abortion rights advocates," said the caption:

A picture inside the Metro section showed protester Al Fabula of Severna Park, but displayed no pro-life signage at all.

The abortion activists got two pictures and four pictures were pro-lifers yelling, pointing, or praying at the abortion activists. These are images the Post photographer could have snapped in about five minutes in front of the High Court's steps. There were zero large crowd-view shots. 

The two photos on the Metro front page were typical. On the left was an aggressive, finger-pointing pro-lifer:  “Sara Brook of Missouri debates an abortion rights advocate.”

On the right was a woman who looked like she was crying, holding up a handwritten sign with the words “My Choice” on it. “Lauren Croll, 20, of the District makes her stand on abortion known in front of a counterprotest to the March for Life rally.”

Then the caption said this about rally attendance: “Freezing rain Monday morning was said to have limited attendance for both groups.” Yes, Post readers: the pro-lifers were limited to many thousands, and the abortion advocates were limited to about 11. The ratio could be a thousand to one, and the newspaper treats them like one versus one.

The Post story by reporter Katherine Driessen mentioned “more than 17,000 youths” were at the Verizon Center on Monday morning for an early-morning Mass. Driessen made it sound like a religious brainwashing:

The Catholic Church has increasingly focused on educating and mobilizing its youth around its antiabortion ideology...

With another presidential election looming, many antiabortion advocates at the event said educating youths in their ideology is more important than ever...

Group chaperone Karina Franco, 37, said this was the first real education in antiabortion ideology for most of the youths...

The reporter might at least freshen it up by mentioning an "antiabortion theology." Driessen then turned to the young “extremist” being developed:

Mendoza’s brother, Jesse, 14, carried the most controversial of the signs. Not-so-jokingly referred to as the “extremist” of the group, Jesse had drawn a fetus and gushing blood on his sign. Jesse wanted to attend the rally last year but was told he was too young. This year, he was the one who started the groups on chants such as “Jesus” and “Obama, your mama chose life.”

The Chicago group had prepared nonviolent ways to handle encounters with abortion rights demonstrators but didn’t encounter any sizable opposition. Freezing rain, which caused delays and closings around the Washington area Monday morning, may have been a factor. Rally organizers said it limited their own attendance.

The top story in Metro on Monday was how New Jersey is the country's largest exporter of college students -- many of them in Washington, DC. As Ken Shepherd reported, the Post in print gave the March for Life zero attention before the march.