Univision’s Spanish-language newscast was totally silent on both Trump’s Title X regulation on abortion, and Leana Wen’s resignation from Planned Parenthood. But on English-language newscast UNews, the report was portrayed as an attack towards women's reproductive rights in hopes that its viewers accept it as truth.
Watch the full report below, as anchor Aranxta Loizaga frames Planned Parenthood in a most favorable light by claiming that Trump's new regulation is “Hailed by Religious Conservatives”, and “denounced by medical organizations and women's rights groups”:
ARANXTA LOIZAGA, ANCHOR, UNEWS: Other news out of Washington, the Trump Administration will begin enforcing the regulation hailed by religious conservatives, but denounced by medical organizations and women's rights groups. As of today, family planning clinics like for instance Planned Parenthood that receive federal money are no longer allowed to refer women to abortion providers. The department of health and human services will also begin enforcing a requirement that clinics maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions. Known as Title X, the family planning program serves about 4 million women annually through independent clinics, many operated by Planned Parenthood affiliates which serve about 40 percent of all clients. The Program provides about 260 Million dollars a year in grants to clinics.
UNews seems determined to place a favorable spotlight on the so-called “family planning” organization. This can be seen in the above mentions of how Planned Parenthood “helps” 4 million women annually, or how the organization provides 260 million dollars a year in grants. What does not get mentioned is the fact that every year, over 300,000 of these “services” are actually abortions. On the other hand, other womens’ services (such as cancer screenings) have drastically decreased over the past years, a big drop of 69% between 2004 and 2015.
UNews only briefly mentioned Planned Parenthood’s former president- as Wen only lasted for 8 months before being replaced by Alexis McGill Johnson. UNews failed to report on the reason behind her resignation. As Wen tweeted in her statement, “the priority of Planned Parenthood moving forward is to double down on abortion rights advocacy.” This only makes it further impossible to believe that Planned Parenthood abortion services only constitute about “3%” of what they do.
As flawed as this report was, though, it is far more than what Univision’s viewers saw on the Spanish-language newscasts, whether on Noticiero Univision, Edicion Nocturna, or the following morning on Despierta America. It isn’t surprising that Univision would pass on this story, given how the network has reported on abortion in the past. Perhaps Jorge Ramos’ whining about pro-life Hispanics that vote has given the network pause to reconsider some of its Spanish-language coverage on Planned Parenthood, time will tell.
It wasn't that long ago that we thought UNews might “represent an opportunity for redemption for Univision’s news division.” Unfortunately, it looks like we (and Univision’s viewers) are stuck with more of the same.
