Because the progressive mainstream media doesn’t find abortion deaths particularly newsworthy, I guess. Why this is so is anyone’s guess.
Viral Read (h/t RSM):
A 10 AM service was held this morning at New York’s Holy Name of Jesus Church for 29 year-old Kindergarten teacher Jennifer McKenna Morbelli. ViralRead was on the scene.
Morbelli died Thursday at Shady Grove Hospital in suburban Montgomery County, Md., after undergoing a late-term abortion performed by Dr. LeRoy Carhart at the Germantown Reproductive Health clinic. Pro-life organizations including Operation Rescue have reported that Morbelli arrived at the clinic late Sunday, Feb. 3, and returned to the clinic for the next three days, including a nine-hour visit on Wednesday, Feb. 6. Morbelli was reportedly rushed to the hospital early Thursday morning and died hours later after suffering “massive internal bleeding,” Operation Rescue reported.
[…]
A kindergarten teacher at Church Street Elementary in White Plains, N.Y., Morbelli was married and her pregnancy had been planned; she even named the unborn child Madison Leigh. However, as reported by Jill Stanek, a prenatal test about two weeks ago found “fetal abnormalities” and the decision was made to seek an abortion. Morbelli was 33 weeks pregnant and Carhart’s Maryland clinic is one of the few sites that perform such late-term abortions.
State and local officials in Maryland are investigating Morbelli’s death, and Tuesday the state attorney general’s office announced a separate investigation of previous complaints of illegal dumping at the Germantown Reproductive Health clinic. Life News is now reporting that the doctor in question is facing legal action.
Carhart’s abortion practice has long been the subject of controversy. In 2005, one of Carhart’s patients, 19-year-old Christin Gilbert, died after a late-term abortion he performed in Kansas. A Nebraska resident, Carhart was the plaintiff in two abortion-related cases that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Carhart was also featured in the documentary After Tiller, about his associate Dr. George Tiller, who was assassinated in 2009. Pro-life organizations have protested repeatedly at Carhart’s clinic in Germantown, Md., about 20 miles outside Washington, D.C.
[…]
Most major news organizations have refused to cover the death of Jennifer Morbelli. TheWashington Post has published two articles about the case, a 350-word piece Sunday and a longer article in Tuesday’s edition about a press conference pro-life groups held near the Germantown clinic. The case has also been reported by the Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., the Gazette in Montgomery County, Md., and the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska.
However, Morbelli’s death has not yet been reported by the New York Times, USA Today, network news channels or the cable news networks for that matter.
“How could any news editor look at the death of Jennifer Morbelli and say, ‘That’s not a story’?” veteran journalist Robert Stacy McCain wrote Tuesday. “This is not merely news, it’s got enough of a human-interest angle to deserve at least a two-hour network special or a magazine cover story.”
I’m not going to assign blame or pass judgment on any of the participants here: I personally reject late-term abortions except in cases where the mother’s life is in imminent danger, but I understand how the prospect of raising a child with potentially serious disabilities can factor in to a decision such as the one made by Ms Morbelli: not because of any inconvenience, necessarily, but because of the emotional trauma that comes with becoming attached to a child who may not be granted a normal life expectancy.
So my interest in this story has more to do with the cultural massaging that media engages in when it chooses to cover stories on, say, the threats to abortion providers and the fundamentalist Christianity followed by some of the pro-life crowd’s most dedicated activists, while ignoring stories that show the potential pitfalls and emotional devastation that can be caused by botched procedures — particularly risky late-term procedures. In this case, two lives were taken.
But rather than investigate the doctor or the clinic or the procedure, which is something you’d expect a journalists to do in cases like these — particularly where a pattern exists — the mainstream press is engaging in omission bias: because Morbelli’s story or any investigation into such procedures could potentially problematize for some people support for an abortion-on-demand pro-life position, one that promotes abortion eligibility without restrictions, a staple of the progressive’s “pro woman” agenda, the mainstream activist press has simply chosen to pretend it isn’t newsworthy, and starve it of oxygen.
This is yet another way by which the legacy press shapes the contours of the national debate on issues like abortion — which doesn’t change many minds, but does create a cultural perception that can influence timid lawmakers and those who don’t wish to be seen as unsophisticated godbotherers.
We may have a free press. But they’ve used that freedom to try to enslave us to a political ideology that can only lead in one direction: authoritarianism. And for that, we should consider them enemies. With Piers Morgan as a kind of belligerent, foppish, self-important poster child for our reasoned disdain.
“Damned bumps in the road. FORWARD!” -Barack Hussein Obama
a two-hour network special would be a little much I think
“fetal abnormalities”
Well, that throws a broad net. What was the abnormality that was so great that this woman was willing to kill a nearly full-term child?
What was the abnormality that was so great that this woman was willing to kill a nearly full-term child?
At considerable risk to herself, no less. 33 weeks? Might as well give birth and use a pillow. MUCH less dangerous to the mother.
On “fetal abnormalities.”
Downs Syndrome?
RSM says “but reportedly decided to seek an abortion in her 33rd week of pregnancy after prenatal testing diagnosed her baby as suffering from a disorder that causes seizures.”
Seizures.
Holy smack. Buy the kid a helmet and put foam on the corners of the coffee table, for the sake of Pete.
Wouldn’t it be safer to just induce labor and kill the kid after it was born?
that is from here
I think it means that this is a very rare situation
It seems Dr. Leroy Carhart didn’t do a very good job, unless you realize that his job is not about saving lives.
of course there’s probably a lot more testing done now than in 1987
This story just gets sadder and sadder.
I’m not going to assign blame or pass judgment on any of the participants here:
Looks like you’re the only one. Thanks for noting the convenient omissions of the legacy press; I just wish it were on a topic that allowed for the sort of abstract discussion you’re trying for.
Seizures, ‘feets.
Not Cystic Fibrosis. Not Down Syndrome. Not limbless. Not Cerebral Palsy.
Seizures. Scary, survivable, treatable seizures.
What the HELL were they thinking?
Don’t give Planned Parenthood any ideas.
Another topic addressing the omissions from the MSM could be all the instances where guns are used by civilians for self defense. There are more, this one just happens to be today’s example.
That is a wonderful story Pablo.
I had my last child at the advanced age of 37 and the doctors spend a tremendous amount of time trying to scare the daylights out of me. He was born three and a half weeks early and 16 years later, you’d never know he was tiny and spent 10 days in NICU.
Who was that other deadly abortion doctor, working out of a shed in Philadelphia? Dr. Edward Scissorshands serves as a descriptor. His close colleague Dr. Leroy Stopheart joins him in sudden infamy.
Don’t give Planned Parenthood any ideas.
Don’t assume they aren’t already doing it.
Limbless puts me in mind of a neighbor I met when my family first moved into our rental home in 1961. She was sitting on the ground painting the wooden trim on the screened porch of that house, holding the brush with her foot, smoking a cigarette with the other (actually, she could use either foot for this and other purposes), and doing a very neat job of the painting, too. Her toes were fully as articulate as any fingers I’d ever seen. She used to invite me to tea at her house a few doors down. She had the first samovar I’d ever seen.
In a culture of instant gratification, planned obsolesence/ready disposability-replaceablity, inflated expectations, convenience, and the whole “culture of death” thing overshadowing? About what you’d expect them to think Dicentra.
Dr Kermitt Gosnell
I thought late -term abortions were usually performed for the the safety of the mother. That’s what they always tell us.
Oops.
I think the American news media has become indistinguishable from Rekall, the memory-implanting company in the Total Recall films.
Essentially, they are trying to construct a reality that they want to live in, and force everyone to live in. Central to that virtual reality is hypersexuality, and “reproductive freedom” (e.g, infertile sex on demand) is its pillar.
What happened to Morbelli and her child at the bloody hands of Carhart are program glitches that need to be edited out of the machine, so they are.
Now how do you suppose that came to be?
what is the “disorder that causes seizures” exactly?
this is all very opaque
Great link, Pablo! Beautiful story.
It’s incredibly sad that this woman decided to abort at 33 weeks. There are kids in the NICU younger than that who survive & thrive. How could she and her husband look at the ultrasound image and not see what they were doing? You’d think at that point in the pregnancy they’d decide to focus on the delivery & then getting the best care they could for the little one.
Well, I sort of half-expected that people would articulate their own judgments, but I’m not interested in doing so. As I said in the post, I personally disagree with the procedure; but I also cannot begin to put myself in the shoes of that couple, nor would I presume to. I’m reading a media account. I’m not in their heads.
I have a good friend whose first daughter, now 18, has a very rare genetic disease that keeps her in a wheelchair. She was never supposed to live this long. I admire my friend — a liberal, incidentally — for the care and treatment and love she’s given her daughter. Could I have handled the same situation? I don’t honestly know.
this is all very opaque
That’s not by accident, as the marxists used to say.
The media’s treatment of this story is in line with any story that is inconvenient to abortion supporters, such as medical complications from the pill & Plan B, Planned Parenthood assisting minors in getting around parental consent laws (i.e. assisting the men who got them pregnant), how abortion disproportionately eliminates the offspring of non-white populations, etc.
After the 2012 DNC’s disgusting abortionpalooza it’s not that surprising. Probably helps that people like Holder’s wife are profiting from this industry, too.
Just to drive Libby’s point home here, contrast the media’s interest (or lack of) in this “personal tragedy” with the way they covered the Santorum’s and their loss of their(stillborn?) youngest daughter.
Personally, I doubt it that it’s entirely the difference in public profile that made the latter more newsworthy than the former.
“Could I have handled the same situation? I don’t honestly know.”
From my experience with a less than perfect kiddo, it’s like any of life’s curveballs – you just find the strength to deal with it because you have to. And your life is better for it.
I find the idea that so many are willing to dispose of (supposedly) less than perfect children repugnant. It’s playing at being God.
It’s playing at being God.
Except for the part where God wouldn’t dispose of a kid for having seizures.
Could I have handled the same situation?
Everyone would freak out at first. Some people would settle down quickly and others would need more time and still others might be utterly overwhelmed.
In which of these cases is it moral to dig the kid out of the womb?
God is wiser than we, that is why I say “playing at being God”.
If God disposed of children with seizures, I wouldn’t be here.
Could I have handled the same situation?
One of my son’s friends is a young mother of a Down Syndrome child. She is doing an excellent job of meeting his needs and getting him the medical attention he may need. I would say she is a better mother than many of her peers who have “normal” kids.
I’ve more a moral judgment call against the veterinarian who performed this procedure than against the young woman who also lost her life. A win-win for the medical profession, this procedure.
Isn’t that what we do?
Failing to contribute to OFA comes to mind.
Oh, wrong kind of “seizure?”
How bad would a child have to be before you could look at it and think I wish you were dead?
How bad would a child have to be before you could look at it and think I wish you were dead?
I take it you’re not asking this about one B. H. O.?
In this day and age, beemoe, not that bad.
Of course, we justify it to ourselves by adding on the because it would be better for you.
I hope I never have to find out.
Ernst, I think that “because it would be better for you” part is intentionally not brought up enough, because it would show how many abortions are done strictly for the selfish reasons of the “parents”.
I was going to add and by “you,” I mean “me.”, but decided it was too obvious to need saying.
My round about way of agreeing with you Scott.
Greetings:
So, what kind of odds can I get on the “Journal News” publishing the home addresses of late-term (and by late-term I mean viable fetuses) abortionists ???
How bad would a child have to be before you could look at it and think I wish you were dead?
Depends on whether it were mine. There’s a lot of people’s kids running around out there turning me into an advocate for legalizing abortion through the 42nd trimester. Or maybe the 54th. I’m willing to compromise.
I hope I never have to find out.
Absolutely no one wants to find out.
I was asking whether the morality of the act could be predicated on a parent “not being able to handle it.”
I say no. If you can’t take care of the kid, you can always find someone who can. Geez Louise, do you know how many prospective adoptive parents would give their right eyes to get a kid who only had seizures?
We don’t know what this young woman’s thoughts and concerns were. She was pressured by both sides, to have her child or not. Was she concerned about costs? About the time the child would demand? Did her husband provide any support either way? Did she have a close-knit family surrounding her?
I imagine her last hours were a living Hell, a guilt-ridden self-constructed nightmare. Sad, that, and also sad that her story must now become fodder for this Republic’s hateful forever-war abortion debate.
Some time back, I read a rather long account of a woman who had adopted an infant that had everything under the sun wrong with her. Developmentally delayed. Physically delayed. Emotionally delayed. It began as a rather touching tale of how far some people will go to adopt and raise a less than perfect child.
The problem I had with the story, was that the woman and her husband had divested themselves of their accumulated wealth—the normal stuff: house, one of their cars, the woman quit her job—so that they would qualify for absolute boatloads of government help in the form of money and medical care.
This was, naturally followed up by many comments of praise for all the bridges the woman had crossed.
For the child(ren)™.
[…] Protein Wisdom […]
Now 65 years old, I became pro-life at 37. I have a history of assisting with abortions, as a student nurse in the UK, and also of taking care of women in labor after back-street inductions. Eager to follow pro-life stories such as the March on Life, I was at first mystified as to why the media ignored, or distorted, information. I have only been able to learn the scope of this societal disorder in the last three years, since I discovered ‘Life Site News’ and began to hear from pro-life organizations. Thank you for your honest appraisal of the media and for covering important stories such as Ms. Morbelli’s death.
One of your commentators thought the suggestion for a “two hour special” was absurd. Last year, Tonya Reaves, mother of a one year old, died after a Planned Parenthood second-trimester abortion. African Americans pro-life leaders, appealed to President Obama who had spoken out in sympathy for Trayvon Martin, whose murder was covered for way more than two hours, on every network. Silence from the President and silence from the media.
There are 378 deaths listed at http://www.prochoiceviolence. org There are suggestions that the CDC is colluding with powerful pro-abort entities, in order to distort the true numbers of women injured from abortion.
Two hundred million females are missing from the world because of gendercide, which is practised even in the U.S. By necessity, these abortions have to be late term, as ultrasound sex determination can not be accomplished until the second trimester
I thought late term was third trimester
late term is whatever your fascist nannystate government says it is
but you knew that
Maybe lateterm is post viability which i think is late second trimester, but i don’t know how science and medical advances have altered the timeline.