Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com was eager to report that House Republicans scuttled a proposed bill to outlaw abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. It was much less eager to tell readers why.
A Jan. 22 CNS article by Melanie Hunter highlighted how "Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, said Thursday she was 'disappointed' that the Republican-controlled House delayed a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." Another article by Hunter the same day detailed how "Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Thursday said despite the House delaying debate on the late-term abortion bill Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, GOP House leadership has not abandoned the 'pro-life effort.'"
Interestingly, neither of those articles saw fit to explain to readers why the vote on the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" was scuttled: Female Republican House members objected to a provision that allowed an rape exception only if that rape was reported to law enforcement.
Later CNS articles mentioned the reason the bill was scuttled, but really didn't want to talk about it much further. A Jan. 22 article by Susan Jones noted that "a few Republicans objected" to the rape provision, then huffed, "Expanding the bill's exemption to cover all claims of rape would allow more abortions." But none of the people Jones quoted in her article expanded on the issue of the rape provision.
A Jan. 23 article by Lauretta Brown reported on "A crowd of pro-life millennials" who gathered outside the office of one of the House Republicans who objected to the rape provision, Rep. Renee Ellmers, "to express their anger with her for delaying and attempting to dilute the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." Brown noted that the "pro-life millennials" were "angered" by the scuttling of the vote, but strangely, she did not ask any of those protesting "pro-life millennials" thought of the rape provision.
Why doesn't CNS want to get into the meat of the rape provision, even though it's at the center of the controversy over the anti-abortion bill, so much so that even normally pro-life Republicans find it objectionable? Perhaps it's following Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham's advice to conservative to keep from letting such controversies over definitions "become the issue." But by censoring the issue, CNS can only make sure it becomes an issue.
Wait, doesn't CNS pledge to "fairly present all legitimate sides of a story"? Yes, but it's hard to do that by pretending that one prominent side of a certain issue doesn't actually exist.
