Coverage of the abortion debate in the New York Times this week has already broken two basic journalistic rules: Show, don’t tell, and emphasize historical fact, not fantasy.
Yesterday, the Times headlined a story, “Inside an Abortion Clinic Days Before Florida’s Six-Week Ban Takes Effect”—but the reporter took us only as far as the abortion center’s “small, beige waiting room.” Once again, a reporter settled for rhetoric and did not describe what takes place inside an abortion office, or what the victim looks like.
On Sunday the Times asserted that “early American law did not even recognize an abortion as having occurred” during the first four months of pregnancy. The evidence: Few convictions for abortions done during those months. Unmentioned: No pregnancy tests. Prosecutors need evidence, and in early America no one could prove that a child was growing in the womb until movement could be felt during the fifth month of pregnancy.
In a book published last year, The Story of Abortion in America, I explained the prosecutorial difficulty, so today I’ll just offer an analogy. Did you know that a tall office building before the Civil War was only five stories high? Does this mean that people thought tall buildings were morally wrong? No: cast iron technology limited height. In the 1880s the introduction of Bessemer steel enabled taller frames.
Claims that early Americans were against tall buildings, or for abortion during the first half of a pregnancy, show technological ignorance.