On Wednesday night, the top English and Spanish networks showed no interest in covering the news that the House of Representatives approved pro-life legislation that would largely ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that will now move over to the Republican-led Senate.
Referred to as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the bill cleared the House by a vote of 242-184 with four Democrats voting with Republicans in the majority and four Republicans joining the remaining Democrats in voting against the pro-life measure (with Republican Congressman Jody Hice of Georgia voting present).
While English-language networks ABC, CBS, and NBC combined with Spanish-language networks MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision to ignore this story, the Fox News Channel (FNC) program Special Report devoted a 26 second news brief to the bill’s passage of the House. Substitute host Chris Wallace reported the following:
The House passed a late term abortion bill today. The House had pulled the measure in January after female Republican members rejected a provision that would have required victims of rape to report the crime to police. The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in most cases, but even if the revamped measure passes the House, as it did today, it has to pass the Senate and faces a likely veto from President Obama.
Here’s more on the bill from The Washington Times:
Forty-two states already prohibit abortion after a certain point in the pregnancy, with 10 using the 20-week threshold — the point where some controversial research says fetuses can feel pain. Wednesday's bill would extend the ban nationwide.
(....)
The bill would still need to survive the Senate, where Democrats are likely to mount a filibuster, and to get by President Obama, who has vowed a veto, saying the bill restricts women's choices at a difficult time for them.
"The bill continues to add harsh burdens to the survivors of sexual assault, rape and incest, who are already enduring unimaginable hardship It's disgraceful," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
While pro-life groups hailed the bill's passage as a pivotal moment, pro-choice groups said the bill is unconstitutional and unnecessary. Abortions after 20 weeks are rare and usually involve some type of medical complication, they said, so the decision should be left to women and their doctors.
Not surprisingly, when the legislation was originally put before Congress on January 22 and pulled due to opposition from female Republicans, the CBS Evening News was all too pleased to promote the “unforced error” by the GOP and how it had “stumbled” on the issue in the past.
With all that in mind, it’s highly unlikely that the liberal media would be giving the same treatment to a bill passed by a Democratic House that would be in conflict with the pro-life views of a Republican president.
In fact, this lack of coverage for pro-life legislation passing through either the House or Senate has been going on for some time as the Media Research Center chronicled back in 2002 when it was a top issue being pushed by the Bush administration and a GOP-led House.
The transcript of the news brief from FNC’s Special Report on May 13 is transcribed below.
FNC’s Special Report
May 13, 2015
6:34 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Late-Term Abortion Ban Vote]
CHRIS WALLACE: The House passed a late term abortion bill today. The House had pulled the measure in January after female Republican members rejected a provision that would have required victims of rape to report the crime to police. The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in most cases, but even if the revamped measure passes the House, as it did today, it has to pass the Senate and faces a likely veto from President Obama.
