On Wednesday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a new abortion bill that is being called more radical than New York’s law that was passed in January.
So far none of the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) have reported on the Illinois law that – among other things – does away with that state’s ban on partial birth abortions.
This continues the broadcast network news trend to ignore passage of far-left abortion legislation while depicting state laws meant to protect the rights of the unborn as “extreme.”
From the morning of May 7 (when Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed the Life Act into law) through the morning of June 13 (the day after Illinois’s law was signed), the Big Three networks filled their evening and morning shows with 3 hours, 20 minutes of coverage often including loaded language depicting these new pro-life laws as “extreme” and “restrictive” attacks on women’s rights – as opposed to “protective” of the rights of the unborn.
But when New York passed its radical law legalizing late term abortions in January, the networks gave it zero coverage. The legislation, signed into law by liberal New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, eventually received 12 seconds of coverage on the May 16 NBC Nightly News.
So far the networks have devoted 0 seconds to the Illinois law which, according to reports from Fox News and Live Action, is even worse than New York’s.
On June 12 Fox’s Caleb Parke reported the following:
“The bill, effectively immediately, repeals a 1975 Illinois abortion law. It eliminates spousal consent, waiting periods, criminal penalties for abortion providers and restrictions on abortion facilities, such as licensing requirements and health and safety inspections. It also repealed the state’s Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act and establishes ‘that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under the law, of this State.’ Former Illinois state representative and Thomas More Society Vice President Peter Breen slammed the measure as ‘the most radical sweeping pro-abortion measure in America and makes Illinois an abortion destination for the country,’ protecting abortion to a greater degree than Free Speech and other First Amendment rights.”
It should be noted a Nevada law that wasn’t as radical as New York’s or Illinois but pulled back some of that state’s restrictions on abortion was given a total of 80 seconds on the June 1 CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News and June 4 CBS This Morning. However, those mentions by CBS correspondent Reena Ninan didn’t detail the law’s provisions and were couched in pieces about Nevada’s new majority-female legislature.
Since May 7 the thrust of the network news coverage has been to depict pro-life legislation and its advocates as “extreme” and “scary” while cheerleading abortion advocates and their Hollywood allies. CBS’s coverage was typical.
After a May 31 CBS This Morning report by correspondent Anna Werner about entertainment companies like Disney, Warner, CBS and Netflix threatening to stop production in Georgia co-host Gayle King fretted about canceled abortion appointments in that state: “It’s a scary time for a lot of people.”
The hosts at CBS This Morning on May 29 cheerleaded for Planned Parenthood, hyping that “donations are going up” and offering softballs to the abortion provider’s president. The journalists offered no push back to Dr. Leana Wen. Regarding a new pro-life law in Missouri, co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King warned, “What do you think, Dr. Wen, that people who don’t understand how serious this is?” She then repeated this talking point: “Planned Parenthood is more than just abortions. I think people need to understand that too.” Co-host Tony Dokoupil even gushed over the importance of the abortion group as he questioned Wen: “I do want to point out, donations are going up. True?...As you say, it’s not a drill.”
