Florida Catholic | Ana Rodriguez-Soto Commentary

Illustration | Ed Foster Jr. – Photos: iStockphoto.com, CNS & FC

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC MIAMI BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 02.01.08

WASHINGTON, D.C. | I wouldn’t have believed it if I had not seen it for myself.

Waiting at the airport for the flight back to Miami, just a few hours after walking in the March for Life, I looked up at a TV screen and saw an image of young people from the Archdiocese of Miami carrying the lead banner.

Before I could get up to go for a closer look, the image changed to that of three women bearing “Keep Abortion Legal” signs. I can’t hear what they are saying, but it seems to me they are getting more airtime than the walkers.

I can’t believe it. I walked the whole way from the Washington mall to the Supreme Court, often running to get ahead of the lead banner, at other times falling back to get closer shots of our teens.

Everywhere I walked, the sidewalks were filled with pro-life posters and pro-life supporters. I did not see one pro-abortion sign in the midst of all those people. (The teens told me they might have seen a couple, including someone with a sign that made an unintelligible point about bacon and pigs!)

Yet the secular media chose to focus on the few rather than the many.

I am appalled because I truly thought the media could play fair. I regard this profession so highly that I expected more from my colleagues.

Given that abortion is the law of the land, you would think that more airtime would be given to those who protest that law on the one day a year when they gather by the thousands.

Apparently that doesn’t apply when the subject is abortion.

I also noticed that a headline in the Washington Post referred to the pro-life camp as “anti-abortion” protesters. I know the media struggled for years to find an adjective that would fairly characterize each side.

Well, if one side is “anti-abortion,” why is the other side not “pro-abortion”? That would seem fair. Instead, the media refer to them as “pro-choice,” but refuse to use the term “pro-life.”

It certainly looks like bias to me.

On the other hand, the media’s myopia on this issue might prove catastrophic for those who support abortion rights. They will be lulled into believing that their voices, as amplified by the media, represent more people than the voices of the thousands who protest every year in Washington, then go back home to help both pregnant women and their unborn babies.

Judging from what I saw during my four-day stay in Washington — groups of teenagers filling hotel lobbies and walking down city streets — the pro-life movement is younger and stronger than the media would lead you to believe.

The other side won’t see us coming.

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