ABC News is not in the habit of publicizing conservative blogs....unless it sends a message liberals adore -- like pro-lifers are freaks. ABCNews.com pted a story on Wednesday headlined “Anti Abortion Activists Give Children Toy Fetuses at State Fair.”
An announcer sounds shocked on an accompanying video with “Fetus Doll Stunt” as the headline: “A bizarre surprise turned up at a state fair in North Dakota! Parents were stunned when their parents pulled out some squishy, life-size fetus dolls. A North Dakota anti-abortion group packed these into bags and handed them out to kids at a state fair.” Horrors! Alana Abramson’s story centered on the disgusted conservatives and liberals:
"My daughter wasn't sure what it was; she handed it to me with a weird look on her face," he told ABC News. "I think a lot of people just thought it was weird."
Fetus Dolls for Halloween? Watch Video
"She's five," he explained. "She doesn't even know how babies are made."
The blogger is right that abortion is a pretty shocking subject for grade-schoolers, and that’s one reason why even prime-time TV disappoints leftists by not airing too many abortion-glorifying plots. So these dolls are "conversation starters" for chats parents may not be ready to begin. But the pro-lifers said most kids see the dolls as unborn babies, not as premature-death totems. ABC wasn't going to focus on their argument:
Port said this was the wrong way of spreading the anti-abortion message. He wrote a blog, "Dear Pro-Lifers: Can You Stop Being a Bunch of Weirdos?" on July 21: "Whatever group is out there trying to promote the pro-life message by handing out squish alien babies, stop. You're doing more harm than good."
Dina Butcher, a North Dakota resident who defines herself as a longtime pro-choice Republican, also blasted the group's decision to distribute the toys in an op-ed in the Grand Forks Herald.
"Judging by the shaped plastic 'fetuses' that they threw to children watching the parade at the North Dakota State Fair," she wrote, the anti-abortion activists "have definitely reached an all-time low in bad taste."
In a statement to ABC News, Samantha Gordon, director of public affairs for NARAL Pro-Choice America, wrote, "Watching the anti-choice movement attempt to engage the public by using extreme and unsettling tactics is nothing new."
Just above the official NARAL quote, ABC had a link in capital letters: "READ MORE ABOUT LAWS ACROSS THE COUNTRY RESTRICTING ABORTION". It linked to an ABC/Univision online story by Emily DeRuy, who worried about "what has developed into a formidable anti-abortion storm front."
Abortion opponents have been working for decades to limit access to the procedure. But until now, they haven't had easy access to the legislative power to back up those attempts. That changed with the onslaught of the Tea Party. Mix together passionate anti-choice voices and real voting muscle that agrees, and it only makes sense that you get abortion restrictions.
DeRuy cites the “now-notorious” Gosnell case in passing, but never quotes a pro-life activist. The whole story sprinkles quotes from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. DeRuy complained that finding a woman to sue for harm from pro-life laws is difficult, because “Finding a woman willing to be the face of such a lawsuit is tricky, especially in conservative states where there is a negative stigma associated with abortion, an already emotionally charged issue.”
