A new law in South Dakota outlawing most abortions is the apparent trigger for Friday’s laudatory New York Times “Public Lives” profile by Robin Finn of new Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards (“Anti-Abortion Advocates? Bring ‘Em On, Texan Says”).
Adhering to common practice for the liberally slanted “Public Lives,” Finn portrays Richards as a heroine battling ruthless and vindictive forces.
“Cecile Richards, the new and instantly embattled president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, would like those retro ‘folks’ -- her word -- intent on knocking her organization, and the entire abortion rights movement, off the map to know she takes after her maternal grandmother. That would be the tall, whip-thin woman who, nine-months pregnant and bedridden, took a timeout from home-birthing a future governor of
Texas/>/> -- Ms. Richards's mother, Ann -- to wring the neck of the chicken her family was having for dinner. Plucky.”
Although Finn emphasizes that “folks” is Richards’ word choice, apparently Finn herself came up with “retro” to describe pro-life activists.
“[Richards] is aware that the other side is just as passionate, and, more important, that the recent appointment of two new Supreme Court justices by the Bush administration appears to have fueled their incentive. So two weeks into her job, Ms. Richards, 48, a married mother of three teenagers (the oldest is at Brandeis; the twins are still in Washington with dad and the dog waiting for an Upper West Side sublet to become available), is gearing up for the unthinkable: a politics-driven challenge to the women's rights precedent supposedly set in stone.
Besides the usual flattering details (“She’s got magnetism and works it”) Finn passes on PP propaganda: “Planned Parenthood serves five million Americans and concentrates 90 percent of its efforts on preventing unwanted pregnancies, Ms. Richards, says, not terminating them."
For more examples of New York Times bias, visit TimesWatch.
