The libertine Left in America is infuriated that Roe v. Wade was overturned. In their ideal world, abortion would be available everywhere at all times of pregnancy, and it would be taxpayer-funded for the less fortunate. Forget that the people who are least fortunate in an abortion are the unborn babies.
Abortion advocacy groups know they have the "mainstream" media on their side to add all the drama they would need on their behalf. On Halloween, both "CBS Mornings" and the "CBS Evening News" offered a one-sided pro-abortion advertisement for the Center for Reproductive Rights as they sue the state of Idaho for endangering "pregnant patients" for only allowing abortion if the life of the mother is at stake, and not the "health."
As anyone who follows the abortion issue knows, a "health" exception can be very broad and applied to mental health. There is a contentious medical issue in how doctors are allowed to determine when a "life of the mother" exception applies. But CBS didn't want to have a medical debate. They wanted to make a campaign commercial... and they labeled it a product of "CBS News Investigations."
CBS didn't "investigate." This story was handed to them. It was prepackaged publicity. Rebecca Vincen-Brown is one of four plaintiffs in the Idaho lawsuit, and her story is the most dramatic one for TV. CBS reporter Adriana Diaz showed her playing with her 2-year-old daughter, and then explained that when her second baby was diagnosed at 16 weeks as unlikely to survive until birth, Vincen-Brown and her husband were "forced" to drive to Portland, Oregon, for an abortion and couldn't arrange child care.
The abortion was supposed to happen over two days, but on the first night, Vincen-Brown went into labor and miscarried in the bathroom of her hotel room. "I had to stifle cries because my child is on the other side of the wall," she recalled.
For drama, Diaz then underlined, "In her pack-and-play." Vincen-Brown repeated, "In her pack-and-play." Diaz said, "Sleeping." Vincen-Brown repeated, "Sleeping, and my other child is sitting in the hotel bathroom." Her aborted child.
Then CBS turned to Vincen-Brown's obstetrician, Dr. Anne Feighner, described as "overcome" with abortion emotion. The doctor said, "There was so much harm that happened to her that didn't need to happen." Nobody's allowed to say that she could have let the difficult pregnancy continue.
This was the evening-news spin at the top of the show from anchor Norah O'Donnell: "Abortion in America. Why a near-total ban in one state left a doctor hopeless and frustrated after her patient was forced to travel out of state for the procedure." Vincen-Brown said, "The trauma that I experienced, I blame completely on the legislation."
There is no space for two sides in this horror story, but there was a Republican. Diaz featured Idaho Rep. John Vander Woude. She announced he has "evolved" on the abortion issue toward expanding a health-care exception.
The Republican needs to agree with the CBS narrative, or he doesn't get interviewed. We call this the "Even Republican," as in "Even Republicans see the error of their ways."
Pro-life groups could also present a horror story with a lawsuit. In September, Alyona Dixon's family filed against a Las Vegas hospital when she died from complications after taking an abortion pill regimen at Planned Parenthood. But CBS News "investigations" won't be done in service of that kind of narrative.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member