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Pro-lifers rally in front of ABC News to condemn abortion ‘censorship’

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WASHINGTON — Pro-life activists rallied outside ABC News Thursday, demanding the network and the mainstream media cover the seedy details of the abortion industry.

“It’s time to report the truth about abortion,” rally organizer Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, told the gathering of pro-lifers.

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“The reality is the media has said that they are here in order to educate the public, maybe bring us to terms with our own biases, report the newsy stories of the day, but the reality is they are not doing that. And we are here today to say enough is enough and it is time to report the news, it’s time to stop censoring the news, it’s time to tell the truth,” she added.

Rose was joined by pro-life leaders and a representative from the conservative Media Research Center (MRC) who offered his evidence of abortion coverage bias.

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Grae Stafford/Daily Caller

“Consider while the nation’s major news media outlets ignored the Kermit Gosnell murder trial, as we have talked about, they fell over themselves to out-do each other in lavishing praise on their hero [Texas Democratic state Sen.] Wendy Davis,” MRC political director Christian Robey said. “ABC, CBS, NBC devoted three times as much coverage to lauding Wendy Davis as to covering the atrocities of so-called Dr. Gosnell.”

Robey further pointed to the media’s coverage of the breast cancer organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s temporary end to donating to Planned Parenthood to coverage of Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid fraud in Texas as evidence of media bias.

“Was there disappointment engulfing the media? Silence. The networks didn’t report [on it]. Attack those who threaten the abortion industry, censor any news about it,” Robey said.

He further criticized the media for playing “games with language to drive their agenda” noting the divergent use of the word “fetus” versus “baby.”

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Grae Stafford/Daily Caller

A prominent theme throughout the rally was the comparison of the media’s coverage of Wendy Davis and the Gosnell trial.

Pro-life activist Jill Stanek noted that the pink sneakers Davis wore during her 13-hour filibuster of a Texas abortion-restricting bill received three times the media coverage as the baby feet discovered in the Gosnell’s office.

Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, showed off her brown cowboy boots to the crowd going on to slam the media for “sexism” due to their focus on Davis’ attire rather than the issues.

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Ariel Cohen/Daily Caller

“I call sexism and real bias in covering a woman’s issue by talking about Wendy Davis’ pink shoes,” Yoest said. “Really? Really, media? Is that what we have come to in this country today? That you are minimizing our concerns and minimizing women’s lives?”

Ryan Bomberger, a child of rape and leader of the pro-life Radiance Foundation, further chided the media for its coverage of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin as compared to the media’s coverage of women who die during abortion procedures.

“Everyone knows of the tragedy of Trayvon Martin’s death. We know that. We know how the media has injected this racism, this faux racism into the narrative. But I want to ask, how many people know the name of Tonya Reaves. I would suggest that not many people know her name,” Bomberger said.

“She wasn’t wearing a hoodie but she was killed in a hood: Planned Parenthood,” he said of the 24-year-old Illinois woman who died last year at a Planned Parenthood facility.

“The media’s silence about Tonya Reaves’ death only shows that violence against women is okay sometimes,” he added.

Live Action recently sent letters to ABC, NBC and CBS calling on them to “stop the abortion censorship.” According to Live Action, they have yet to receive a response.

When asked what they hope to accomplish through all of this, Rose told TheDC they are hoping the media will make a “180 degree” turn in their coverage of abortion matters.

“If they want people to able to trust them, they need to be reporting the facts,” she said.

An ABC camera attended the rally. Rose said that whether ABC covers the rally would be “another test to see if they are going to be reporting the news.”

Videography by Sarah Hofmann and Richard Thompson.

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