ABC bias

From http://www.lifenews.com/nat2766.html

ABC News Makes False Claims on Abortion Risks, Pregnancy Centers

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by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorNovember 17, 2006
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- Following the lead of abortion advocacy groups, ABC News reporter Dan Harris wrote a news article Friday attacking the work of the thousands of pregnancy centers nationwide that provide abortion alternatives and help for pregnant women. The article also contained a false claim that induced abortion has no link to various confirmed risks.
In the headline of its story, ABC News claims that crisis pregnancy centers are "offering information long discredited by the medical community."
The claim comes after comments from abortion advocates who allege pregnancy centers "harass and mislead women by telling them ... that abortions can lead to breast cancer, sterility and depression."

Harris then writes, "These claims have all been widely discredited by the medical community" though he provides no evidence in the story to back up his assertion.
The news report, however, runs counter to significant recent medical research.
A study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in January found that mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts, were more likely to occur among women who had an abortion than women who had never been pregnant or didn't have an abortion.
The research found that 42 percent of the women who had abortions had experienced major depression within the last four years. That's almost double the rate of women who never became pregnant. The risk of anxiety disorders also doubled.

According to the New Zealand study, women who have abortions were twice as likely to drink alcohol at dangerous levels and three times as likely to be addicted to illegal drugs.
David Fergusson, who led the study and backs legal abortion, said the results show access to legal abortions is not necessarily good for women. He also said the study confirms abortions cause women mental health issue -- rather than alleviating them as abortion advocates claim.
His conclusion backs the results of a study by researchers at Bowling Green State University in 2004 who examined data on nearly 11,000 women between the ages of 15 and 34 who had experienced an unintended pregnancy.
Their survey found that women who have abortions of unexpected pregnancies were 30 percent more likely to experience subsequent problems with anxiety than those who don't have one.
LifeNews.com contacted Harris about his article and the false claim on the abortion risks and Harris defended the allegation.
The "medical community" that Harris says believes abortion doesn't lead to depression, breast cancer or sterility consists only of an internal group of doctors that advise ABC News.
"We have a medical unit here consisting of doctors who pulled all of the relevant research," Harris told LifeNews.com, and he made his claims based on their contention those abortion risks don't exist.

When asked about the recent research showing abortion causing numerous mental health problems for women, Harris cited a 1989 and 2000 research study to black up the claims from the ABC News medical advisors.
He also cited an old statement from the American Psychological Association discounting the abortion-depression link, even though the organization recently withdrew their statement denying it.
Harris did say he would welcome information from LifeNews.com on more recent research and would correct his news story if warranted, but again defended his claim that abortion produces no medical or mental health risks.
"I don't think we made an error, our medial unit is pretty solid and respected in the medical community," Harris contended.
But members of the "medical community" don't agree with the findings of ABC News' anonymous group of medical advisors.
Last month a leading group of psychologists and mental health professionals in England say that abortion causes women tremendous psychological and mental health problems. They are calling on the nation's doctor's group to revise its guidelines about what women considering an abortion are told.

The list of professionals included Andrew Sims, past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Patricia Casey, a professor of Psychiatry at University College in Dublin, and leading psychologists. nat2697.html
On the abortion-beast cancer link, Harris told LifeNews.com the medical unit based its view on a new study conducted by researchers as Oxford University in England that claims induced abortions do not raise a woman's breast cancer risk.
However, Professor Joel Brind, a researcher from Baruch College in New York and the president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, says the new Oxford study is "seriously flawed in the direction of covering up the link."
The study included both abortions and breast cancer diagnoses on women from various European nations up to the year 2000 -- but many women were over the age of 40 when abortion was legalized in the countries.

Therefore, many younger women with recent abortions were compared to older breast cancer patients who were too old to have been exposed to legal abortions during most of their fertile years, Brind explained.
"This sort of bad science is becoming disappointingly familiar," Brind added. "It is similar to the flaws in the Danish study" which Brind says had the same flawed analysis as the new Oxford one.
Dr. Gillian K. Reeves, who published the study, also failed to compare the effect of having an abortion with the effect of having a full term pregnancy.
A 1996 report published by the British Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health looked at 23 previous studies and found abortion increases the breast cancer risk by 30 percent.
Meanwhile, research shows that abortion can lead to infertility by increasing the risk of miscarriages.

A 1986 report in the medical journal Epidemiology reveals women with a history of abortion have a greater risk of fetal loss than women who had no previous abortions. Women with two prior pregnancies carried to term and no abortions had the lowest risk, while women with two prior abortions had the highest risk.
Also, a 1991 British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology article revealed that women with a history of abortion had a 1.5-1.7 times higher risk of ectopic pregnancy than women who had previously carried a pregnancy to term.

ACTION: Contact ABC News and urge it to feature abortion news reports that are fairly and accurately written: ABC News, 77 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023 (p) 212-456-7777. Or send an email to support@abcnews.go.com about Dan Harris' news story.


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Dear friends,

Ok-- today, I'm preaching. Many of you are the choir (you know who you are, so please don't take affront), but I think some things still need to be stated.While I realize the magnitude of effort that went into defeating Amendment 2, my strong opinion is that kind of rigorous spiritual & moral education should be taking place in our community & churches constantly, not just when evil threatens to roost in our own neighborhoods. When immoral legislation is passed ANYWHERE, it should be assumed we are going to face it on our home turf at some point, because Satan is simply never satisfied. Be absolutely clear on this, because it’s forgotten all too often: Satan cannot be bargained with, he cannot be reasoned with, he doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear.

And he absolutely will not stop, ever, until we are dead. Therefore, evil will always snowball, IF WE LET IT. God is not only Love and Mercy, He is also Justice. Why would He reward a people who allow abortion up to the very moment of birth? Who allow reference to Him to be removed from public, as if it's profanity? Who allow the homosexual/sex-education agendas and evolution to be pumped into our public schools, but outlaw prayer, the pledge, and intelligent design? Who allow the media to soak the dignity of our culture in the moral equivalent of sulfuric acid? The sound of our outrage should be deafening. But it's not.Sure, a few groups organize to fight, but the response is nothing what it should be in a country whose population is mostly Judeo/Christian.

There was a time not so long ago when openly opposing one’s church would have been quite sufficient to sink one’s political career. Now we have McCaskill to add to the ever-growing list of shameless affronts to Christianity. And the thing is, it's easier for us to fight this enemy now than ever before in the history of the world: With our dollars. Christ died an agonizing death at the hands of a merciless mob to give us the opportunity for eternal salvation, and Christians can't even be bothered to change the channel, stay home from offensive movies, cancel our subscriptions to corrosive magazines and biased newspapers, or drive a little further/pay a little more to avoid giving money to franchises that subsidize immorality?Look around your local shopping center and you will see the answer is a resounding “No.”There’s just no excuse for that, Christians. Our few friends in conservative media can't do everything for us, and they shouldn't have to.We have been too quiet.God bless,Amy

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American Culture Hits Its Lowest Point EverFriday , November 17, 2006

By Bill O'Reilly

Rock bottom has arrived as O.J. Simpson is being paid to speculate about the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman — murders a civil court ruled he committed.As you may know, Simpson will reportedly receive $3.5 million to detail how he would have murdered the two Americans if he had did it.Since Nicole was the mother of his two children, the horror of this is evident to any decent person.

But FOX TV and a publisher believe they can make money on the project, so it's on. Add to that the Kansas late-term abortion situation, where hundreds, perhaps thousands of viable babies are being terminated by a doctor named George Tiller. Combined with Simpson, you now have two atrocities front and center before the American public.So what are we going to do about it?Don't expect any help from the elite media. It is largely ignoring the Simpson situation and yesterday, The New York Times editorialized that any investigation into Tiller's action is a gross assault on privacy and legal rights.Of course, babies have no legal rights in the eyes of The New York Times.

So it's up to us, the American people, to deal with the collapse of our culture. This is no longer about fictional torture movies or gangster rap — terrible forms of entertainment. This is about real human beings being butchered and Americans profiting from those deaths. Remember, Tiller charges $5,000 to terminate a baby.In ancient Rome, the society collapsed when Romans basically said no boundaries, any brutality is acceptable. We have almost reached that point in America.So here's what I'm going to do as a citizen. I'm not going to watch the Simpson show or even look at the book. I'm not even going to look at it. If any company sponsors the TV program, I will not buy anything that company sells — ever.

If every American walked away from the O.J. garbage, it wouldn't happen. If every American demanded a full exposition of Dr. Tiller's activities, he would be forced to stop.So it's on us. What kind of a country do we want? Remember that question if you are tempted to watch the Simpson special.And that's the Memo.Most Ridiculous Item of the DayAs you may know, we are investigating why the brutal murder of baby Jason Midyette has not been prosecuted in Boulder, Colorado.Well, a University of Colorado journalism professor, Len Ackland, has an opinion on the subject. He told "The Daily Camera" that some news outlets are exploiting the baby's death for ratings — that would be us.Professor Ackland, with all due respect, is ridiculous, irresponsible and callous to boot. Another example following Ward Churchill of how out of control things are at U.C. Boulder.You've got a dead baby, sir. Justice needs to happen, OK?—You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to:

oreilly@foxnews.com