Reporting on 10-Year-Old’s Abortion Tale Without Committing Journalism – Opinion

An abortion story “too good to verify” is surrounded by questions that the press will not dare to ask.

RedState’s staff is well-versed in the notion of finding a story you love and then having to stop, so you don’t get lost in your own world. If everything fits together perfectly and sounds good right away, then it is time to slow down and take an in-depth look.

This practice is lacking in the current journalist landscape.

A story about a 10-year old girl, who had become pregnant, and was forced to travel across the country to have an abortion, is currently making news. It’s fueled by President Biden’s speech. Streiff reported on the details Friday. As reported by the media, this pregnancy occurred in Ohio. But, after the rollback Roe vs. WadeThis state enforced its strict abortion standards and forced the patient to travel to Indiana.

From here, the story beginsIndianapolis StarThe doctor in the region gave these details about the baby to the reporter. It was because the girl passed the Ohio 6-week abortion trigger date. While the news story is being spread widely, it has also been reported by international media. However, there are numerous issues. One question almost all the news outlets have failed to ask – Are the stories true?

By Sunday, the story remains relatively unchanged, so all the specifics that are being shared come from that lone source, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist. Megan Fox of PJ Media covered Dr. Bernard’s pro-abortion views. She has a long resume of media appearances. This is just one month. Fox has compiled a number of media entries that involve the abortionist lobbying on behalf of the procedure’s legality.

Glenn Kessler is the Washington Post’s fact-checker. He has, to his credit also looked into the matter.I was unable to locate any additional details about the story. Of course, this being Kessler, he has to hedge on things when it appears that there may be bad results reflecting on the country’s press corps.

With news reports around the globe and now a presidential imprimatur, however, the story has acquired the status of a “fact” no matter its provenance. The fact that a rapist was ever arrested would be more solid.

It is not easy to follow up with the paper of record. Kessler and other people have attempted to reach out for more information but received very limited responses. 

The story’s lead reporter, Shari Rudavsky, did not respond to a query asking whether additional sourcing was obtained. A Gannett spokeswoman provided a comment from Bro Krift, the newspaper’s executive editor: “The facts and sourcing about people crossing state lines into Indiana, including the 10-year-old girl, for abortions are clear. We have no additional comment at this time.”

This does little to instill confidence in the reporting. They would not have listed those cases if they had been able to present evidence or witness. They instead rewrote their piece using a boilerplate version of the standard. We stand behind our reporting. But in doing so, this means the entire report – and the global response – is hinged upon a single source, and one who is not forthcoming with details to support the claims. 

What Kessler stumbles over without actually declaring is that what he exposed was the ability of the press to expose any hard facts–and that this should have given reporters pause over the story. It is clear that there are serious issues to address.

– What are the authorities doing? If a ten year-old has been impregnated, contact should have been made somewhere along the timeline with child services and law enforcement. It is not possible to pinpoint the exact date or location of this crime. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office has no record of such an incident being reported. Although it could have been a case where the girl had an unplanned pregnancy, that information would still be investigated by officials. However, no evidence has been provided to show authorities were involved.

– Details Because of the curious timing involved, details about this pregnancy are begging for further information. It was just days before the SCOTUS abortion ruling, and Ohio implementing it’s law that Dr. Bernard got the call. Then we hear that the child had missed Ohio’s 6-week deadline mark, again by just a few days. These are all very precise dating of the pregnancies of young girls, likely unawares or imprecise as to when the effects occurred. 

– The Doctor The primary – nay, the solitary – The source of the information is questionable. She is not just an activist for some measure but also has a curious relationship with the media. Her interest in the story is greater than her desire to help the family. It is obvious that she wanted to be quick to publish this story. But once she got pressed, she stopped responding. Doctor Bernard wouldn’t even tell the location of Ohio’s referencing physician, so it was impossible to search police reports. Ohio law requires a child’s welfare in this type of case to be reported. It might be argued that there is the patient privacy at play, of course, but this seems negated by Bernard’s willingness to rush to the press in the first place. 

While none of the above proves that this story is true, this seems to be a case where a negative has been disproved. With numerous major news outlets, and the President of the United States, repeating this story as “fact” – to use Kessler’s designation – it becomes revealing that we are not seeing more facts coming out as more outlets report on it. The story has one source, but he is not responding. The primary news source stands by the story, but has no evidence. Mike DeWine is the governor we are facing. A young girl cannot have an abortion denied,No one is able to determine who exists. 

With this, the media has gone wild Perfect Abortion story. However, the increasing number of news media outlets repeat this saying it is clear that they have not uncovered any additional information. It is impossible to confirm a story that’s too compelling not to be investigated. Although there could be information about a crime or a rape in this case, journalism is being pushed aside by activism. This is a crucial point for many people in the media industry.