The Washington Post has a tendency of hyping pro-abortion advocates in its pages and the July 2nd edition of the paper was no different. In a 17-paragraph piece in the Metro section, author Ian Shapira lamented a study from the pro-abortion group NARAL which claims that numerous pregnancy crisis centers across Virginia refuse to provide services to women if they plan on aborting their child.
In the heavily pro-NARAL piece, Shapira provided an extremely slanted view of abortion in Virginia, with the shocking revelation that a grand total of “three crisis clinics- advertised on the state’s list of no-cost ultrasound providers – indicated they would refuse copies of ultrasound images, preventing women from getting approval to terminate a pregnancy at an abortion clinic.”
While the piece does provide two pro-life quotes lambasting the validity of the NARAL study, the majority of the piece pushes NARAL’s pro-abortion agenda, including highlighting pro-life "intimidation." Shapiro noted how:
NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia warns that the new ultrasound law benefits the states 50-plus crisis centers-many of which are affiliated with pro-life national organizations.
Shapira appears shocked that pro-life pregnancy centers in Virginia would refuse to provide an ultrasound for a woman who intended to obtain an abortion, and thus should not be included on the state’s list of no-cost ultrasound clinics. The journalist proceeded to promote Democrat State Senator Ralph S. Northam who objects to such pro-life groups being included on the list, apparently because only pro-abortion clinics should be allowed to offer ultrasounds.
Shapira notes that “there are more than twice as many of these clinics [pro-life] compared with the number of free-standing facilities that offer abortion” exposing NARAL NARAL’s true goal of promoting more abortions across Virginia.
For his part, the reporter did include a quote from a pro-life clinic, which NARAL accused of denying ultrasounds to women seeking abortions. Carol Slaughter, the executive director of the Little Life Pregnancy Center said that her clinic’s policy is to always supply patients with the ultrasound images and attributed NARAL’s findings to a “mix-up in communication.”
The story ends with a quote from Rosemary Codding, who is the director of an abortion clinic in Virginia, claiming that one of her patients first went to a pro-life clinic and received an ultrasound with “Hi Dad” printed on the image and Codding commenting that this is an example of “more intimidation right there.”
On April 29, the Post echoed a similar theme, lamenting, "Virginia's assault on abortion claims a victim."
