On Friday, "March for Life" day, The New York Times heavily implied that the "fiercely anti-abortion" social conservatives were going to hurt the Republicans in the new election cycle. The headline was "After Roe, Republicans Wrestle With What It Means to Be 'Pro-Life.'"
Notice they put that "pro-life" in scare quotes, just as they put "crisis pregnancy centers" in quotes or wrote "so-called crisis pregnancy centers." They let conservative say "pro-life" in quotes, but not in the "news" copy.
Reporters Lisa Lerer and Katie Glueck constantly talked about the "conservatives" and their "anti-abortion" extremes, but there were no liberals or leftists on the other side, only "Democrats." As in this blatantly false passage:
They sought to push Democrats to define their own limits on gestational age — and falsely accused them of supporting “abortion until birth” if they refused. Nearly all Democrats support federal legislation that would reinstate a version of the standard set by Roe: permitting abortion until fetal viability, roughly 23 weeks, and after that point only if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s health.
Wrong. Anyone watching Democrats on TV knows that they wouldn't name an actual limit on their precious "right to choose," which leaves the obvious flavor of "abortion until birth."
Democrats explicitly refused to name limits – or even just ONE limit – on abortion they'd support.
— SBA Pro-Life America | 72% 🇺🇸 support 15 weeks (@sbaprolife) January 20, 2023
It doesn't get much clearer than this, @nytimes https://t.co/fEvO2U6K5H pic.twitter.com/upMZljf4Ee
But guess what? After harsh pushback on social media, the Times actually edited to take out the "falsely accused" part. Now it's just "at times misleading."
They sought to push Democrats to define their own limits on gestational age in order to frame them, at times misleadingly, as “extremists” who support “abortion until birth” if they refused.
Nearly all Democrats support federal legislation that would reinstate a version of the standard set by Roe: permitting abortion until fetal viability, roughly 23 weeks, and after that point only if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s health. Less than 1 percent of abortions occur after 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Only the anti-abortion side can be "extremists." Supporting abortion on demand is apparently the way to attract "moderate suburbanites." If you support the Planned Parenthood side, you're not a "moderate."
