On March 30, Purvi Patel was found guilty of taking abortion-inducing drugs illegally, causing her 25-28 week old “fetus” to die, and tossing the infant’s body in a dumpster. She is the first woman in the United States sentenced for feticide. In the state of Indiana, which has feticide laws, it is illegal to kill an unborn fetus without the assistance of an abortionist (meaning, an unborn child is treated like a person under the feticide law), however, “special permission” is given for an abortion conducted by an abortionist. (Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?) Patel’s conviction is causing a lot of controversy, but for all the wrong reasons.
Patel’s story isn’t simply about a woman being “punished” for having suffered a miscarriage and throwing a baby in a dumpster, as many news outlets and pro-choice organizations would like you to believe. No. The cause for controversy is how certain media outlets (such as NBC and The Washington Post) chose to leave out critical information, thereby changing the story, and confirming their bias (otherwise known as confirmation bias). I can give several examples using two stories, one from NBC News and The Washington Post.
First. Headlines. NBC News filed a story on March 31 with the headline, “First woman in US sentenced for killing a fetus” the day after Patel’s sentencing. Using the term “fetus” makes it seem as though “it” isn’t a living thing. A “fetus” means it is still within the mother’s womb and can still be terminated by choice…because it’s not a “baby.”
Meanwhile a day later, The Washington Post used a far less objective headline: “Indiana woman jailed for 'feticide.' It’s never happened before.” This headline was purely used to provoke outrage in feminist circles over the reproductive rights of women…and that “it’s never happened before”? All the more shocking. Also, the fact that quotation marks were used for the word “feticide” makes it sound like it’s something made up, not to be taken seriously. A joke, if you will.
Second. Viewpoints. NBC News quoted four individuals who defended Patel, two of which were from pro-choice organizations, Lynn Paltrow – Executive Director for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and Sue Ellen Braunlin – doctor and co-president of the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice. Nowhere in the article did they quote anyone from a pro-life organization, or anyone who had an opposing view. The Washington Post didn’t use any viewpoints that opposed Patel, but they quoted another source from National Advocates for Pregnant Women (Sara Ainsworth, director of legal advocacy) and Slate’s Amanda Marcotte, one of the most pro-abortion (and anti-child) advocates in the country.
Third. Text Messages. The NBC News article never mentioned the text messages Patel sent to a friend the days leading up to her self-induced abortion. For their part, The Washington Post hardly gave them a mention. Texts sent back in April about Patel’s irregular menstrual cycle and cramping show a friend urging her to see a doctor. Patel didn’t. In June, Patel took a pregnancy test that was positive and texted her friend about ordering abortion pills from an “international pharmacy”. Again, the friend urged Patel to see a doctor, which Patel replied, “I’d rather not even go to a doc. I just want to get this over with.” Other descriptive texts from Patel included, “BTW, these pills taste like sh**. If these pills don’t work…I’m gonna be mad,” and on July 13, Patel text messaged her friend, “Just lost the baby. I’m gonna clean up the bathroom and then go to Moe’s.”
The text messages also revealed that the pills arrived at Patel’s family-owned chain restaurant, a Moe’s Southwest Grill in Mishawaka, IN. This information wasn’t hard to find. As a matter of fact, a quick google search shows local Indiana news channel WSBT specifically addressed the topic of the text messages back in January, including some of Patel’s more shocking texts. All NBC News and The Washington Post had to do was a little research.
Fourth. The Search. Nowhere in either NBC News or Washington Post articles did reporters describe the frantic search for the disposed baby. Unlike the major news outlets covering the Patel story, WSBT has provided extensive coverage, including the search for the missing baby.
“This was not a simple miscarriage,” testified Dr. Kelly McGuire.
McGuire told jurors he called police and found out Patel told another doctor she’d put the baby in a dumpster behind Super Target in Mishawaka.
Then, McGuire rushed there in his own car.
“I thought time was of the essence and if they found the baby then potentially I could help with the resuscitation if needed,” he testified.
“Did you believe this baby could still be alive?” asked deputy prosecuting attorney Mark Roule.
“Yes,” McGuire replied.
The baby boy would eventually be found lying on its side on top of a plastic bag in a dumpster. Perhaps major news outlets thought describing the search would have given sympathy to the discarded baby rather than to Patel, who they were trying to paint as a victim from a “poor” immigrant family who was punished for suffering a miscarriage.
Fifth. Toxicology. Both NBC News and The Washington Post made sure to include that toxicology reports showed no traces of any abortion-inducing drugs in Patel’s system. If there were no traces of the drug in her system, it must conclude Patel suffered from a natural miscarriage instead of an induced abortion. Right? Wrong. Both articles neglected to say that the toxicology reports didn’t find anything in Patel’s system since a test for those drugs simply do not exist. Also, if the drugs were ingested, they do not last long in the system. However, when it was told that the prosecution used a “floating test” to see if Patel’s baby drew a breath, The Washington Post made sure to include that such a test has “been contested” by science.
As tragic as this story is, it’s made more tragic by the fact that big news outlets such as NBC News and The Washington Post choose to keep pertinent information about this case from its readers, while smaller news outlets, such as WSBT, provide the entire story. They try to paint Patel as a victim in “the war on women” and making this a reproductive rights story. Sadly, they gloss over the true victim of the story, Patel’s baby, who was left to die in a dumpster. That’s the story of a baby killed by his own mother.
