One liberal sports writer is foaming at the mouth over a Pennsylvania newspaper article celebrating the life of one their student athletes turned soon-to-be NFL player and praising his mother for choosing not to abort him.
Penn Live (the website for Harrisburg's Patriot News) published a piece on April 20 about the achievements of All-American Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons who’s on track to become an NFL first round draft pick. Not only did the paper recognize Parsons’ considerable athletic accomplishments, their story was written from the perspective of gratitude for the choice Micah’s mother made in not aborting him.
The title of the piece read, “Mom’s ‘biggest blessing’: Spared from abortion, Micah Parsons about to become 1st-round NFL draft pick.” It was shocking to see such a beautiful pro-life message from a large local newspaper. The piece even wrote that “one of the most-gifted athletes Harrisburg has ever produced was almost never born” if it weren’t for “divine intervention.”
Wow. How nice! However, that beautiful story looked pretty ugly from the perspective of one lefty sportswriter.
It seemed like Nicole Auerbach, Senior Writer at The Athletic and the National Sports Media Association's 2020 “Sportswriter of the Year,” couldn’t stand the post. The sports journo went out of her way to complain that a modern “legitimate” news source would actually write a pro-life story. Auerbach shared the article and commented as if she thought a reputable news source taking a realistic view on abortion was the height of unprofessionalism:
It was also implicit pressure from a well-regarded journalist (and a signal for a pile-on from her followers) for the news source to reconsider and take it down.
Perhaps for Auerbach the shock came from seeing a source so mainstream saying something so controversial, but imagine how frigid someone has to be towards being pro-life that the very idea of not having an abortion causes them do a massive double take and wonder whether the paper is being serious or not. It’s like Auerbach just saw a ghost.
That the sports journo is incredulous at the fact that Penn Live editors not only allowed this to be published but has not taken it down is just such an indictment on sports journalism and media in general. Heaven forbid someone publish something meaningful about a pro-life experience. Like the piece claimed, their best athlete would have never been born if his mother chose abortion and that’s huge.
To make matters worse, Auerbach came off as a privileged white woman denigrating a struggling black mother and her family's religious experience:
One day the phone rang, Sherese said, and on the other end was Sister Hall from the church. When Sherese told her that she was “doing fine,” Hall said she was hiding something and eventually surfaced the truth.
“She talked my mom out of [the abortion],” Micah said. “I think that is why (my mom) was always like, ‘God looks over you, son, and you should continue to keep doing good things in your life and give back to God.’ That was one of the first lessons she taught me.”
In effect, the story shows what a horrible thing abortion is, that it cuts out such potential and the talent that's fulfilled when an unborn child’s life is given a chance, even under difficult circumstances. More stories like Penn Live’s latest might encourage a culture more respectful of life and a better understanding of what great loss abortion produces. And that’s probably what people like Auerbach fear. For folks like her, it’s better if abortion is not even brought up.
