When Rand Paul challenged the media to scrutinize the views of abortion rights advocates just as they do abortion opponents, he brought a long-running complaint of conservatives to the presidential campaign stage.
Conservative critics of media coverage have argued that politicians who oppose legalized abortion are routinely asked to comment on extreme cases while politicians who speak in terms of allowing women to control their own body are not typically asked whether that applies to abortions performed deep into pregnancy.
Abortion itself is a highly-charged topic — but so is the way it’s covered, as foes have contended for years that their views are consistently marginalized.
The issue boiled over two years ago when abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was tried for killing three infants — with the trial going largely unreported until conservatives called attention to it — and this week Paul raised it again after launching his presidential campaign.
When asked where he’d draw the line on abortion restrictions, the Kentucky Republican told reporters to pose equally tough questions to Democrats. That response triggered an exchange with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who said the government shouldn’t get “involved” in the issue, period. Regardless of their feelings of Paul, his dustup on the issue struck a chord with conservatives.
“Reporters are fond of trying to corner politicians like Rand Paul on abortion and asking about the fringe matters on that issue, like rape or incest exceptions, instead of asking Democrats, ‘Would you draw the line on which abortions should be performed?'” said Drew Belsky, former communications director for the anti-abortion group Live Action.
Abortion opponents recite a litany of examples to demonstrate their point, including instances when the media appeared to fixate on stories favorable to advocates of legal abortion and ignored those that weren’t — or when they drilled Republicans on which exemptions to abortion bans they’d support but didn’t ask Democrats about supporting controversial late-term abortions.
Mollie Hemingway, a media critic and senior editor of the Federalist, pointed to the heavy criticism faced by Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in 2012 when it initially pulled grant funding from Planned Parenthood (but reversed the decision three days later).
“Conservative complaints about media bias are sometimes overdrawn,” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, a conservative Catholic, wrote at the time. “On the abortion issue, the press’s prejudices are often absolute, its biases blatant and its blinders impenetrable.”
Hemingway also cited widespread and largely positive coverage Wendy Davis received when, as a Texas legislator, she filibustered a measure banning abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy along with further regulating clinics and doctors. About a dozen other states have recently passed 20-week bans.
And when President Obama was running in 2008, he wasn’t pressed hard on why as an Illinois legislator he opposed a bill that would have entitled an aborted fetus showing signs of life to legal protection, she noted.
“You had a guy running for president who failed to vote for an infant born alive protection act and the media were like, ‘Oh, not a really big deal,'” Hemingway said.
Few Americans agree with extreme positions on either side of the issue, either with those who would allow abortion under any circumstances or those who would entirely prohibit it without any exceptions.
And polls show that a small majority support banning it midway through pregnancy, a more moderate approach especially championed by the Susan B. Anthony List. Yet the group feels that many reporters don’t characterize most Democrats as extreme for opposing that type of measure.
“Polls show that the majority of Americans are on our side on this issue. It’s pro-abortion Democrats who are miles away from common ground,” said SBA List spokeswoman Mallory Quigley.
The group’s number one goal for 2016? Forcing Democratic candidates —particularly Hillary Clinton, if she runs for president — to clarify where they stand on the issue, Quigley said.
“I would say absolutely it is our mission to make sure she is forced to explicitly state her position on abortion,” Quigley said.
Quigley and other activists are quick to emphasize they don’t feel as though they’re treated unfairly by every reporter in every situation. And some longtime activists say they feel as though the press has tended to give their arguments more attention in recent years.
“I guess if anything, it may have gotten a little bit better,” said Penny Nance, president of the conservative group Concerned Women for America.
Yet conservatives say they still feel left out much of the time. “In no way, shape or form is there impartiality of ideology on abortion,” Nance said.
