Abortion Coverage

For all its coverage on the abortion issue, the news media has yet to cover abortion at all.

I believe newspapers should send journalists in to cover abortions (with permission of the abortionist and parents) and to describe the procedure. Particular detail should be provided on the state of the fetus, since much of the debate centers on whether the developing baby constitutes life.

Since most journalists, like the rest of society, have strong feelings about abortion, two reporters should be involved in this type of coverage, with one from each side of the debate.

My proposal, of course, will shock some journalists and others who will argue passionately about the right to privacy or whatever other non-constitutional excuse they can find. Only on the abortion issue would journalists argue about a right to privacy that cannot be found in the U.S. Constitution. These reporters already have taken sides before their reporting has begun. In any event, it is not necessary to identify the parents if they wish to remain anonymous. It also would be fair game to describe the circumstances that led to the abortion, and to ask what options, if any, were explored before the fatal choice was made.

Like televised coverage of capital punishment, I believe coverage of abortions will force the public to think more deeply, and painfully, about what an abortion is and whether this practice should remain legal.

JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN

Vista

Christoffersen is a journalist on a North County newspaper.