Tuesday 25 August 2009

More fun with headlines

Further to deBeauxOs's post on headlines and spin, I found a case of spin-doctoring in religious reporting on the partial failure of a new law throwing up more barriers to abortion in Oklahoma.

First, the Baptists. Under the headline 'Judge nixes Okla. ultrasound law', the piece laments:
An Oklahoma judge has invalidated on procedural grounds a state ultrasound law described by a national pro-life organization as the best in the country.
. . .
Sonogram machines have been important tools in pro-life pregnancy care centers' attempts to educate pregnant women about their unborn children. Such centers have reported dramatic upswings in clients choosing to give birth after viewing ultrasound images of their babies.

Yabbut, the Catlicks are celebrating, with this headline: 'Judge upholds law requiring doctors to tell women abortion ends life'.
A federal judge in South Dakota ruled Aug. 20 that a 2005 South Dakota law requiring doctors to inform patients that abortion kills a human being is constitutional.

(Note small ooopsie in the state. 'Twas Oklahoma, ye ijits.)

Depending on one's agenda -- on the one hand, forcing those dirty sluts to give birth; on the other, SHRIEEEEKING about the sanctity of life -- the judge's ruling was either a FAIL! or a WIN!

Go figure.

Me, I just love it when the anti-choicers eat their own. And each other.

2 comments:

Parliament Shill said...

The ultrasound laws strike me as particularly odious (so happy to see them go, even if the other one stays). The procedure clearly has no real medical purpose. Ergo, women are being legally forced to undergo a medical procedure, albeit a non-invasive one, for the ideological purpose of influencing their treatment decisions.

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure its defenders would say that's not what's going on here, but if you look at it in terms of medical ethics, isn't that what's going on there?

Bina said...

I notice there's nothing in the ruling that says a patient can't have her fingers planted firmly in her ears when the doctor is making the obligatory sermon on the Glory of God-Given Life. Hallelujah...

PS: Vaginal ultrasound is indeed invasive. Having a probe stuck up your wahoo by a (provably unqualified) "pregnancy care centre" technician surely ranks as an invasion, especially if you've survived a rape, no?

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