Rich Lowry’s latest column, I think, offers the best round-up yet of the strange abortion-related knots the press has tied itself into while reporting the horrible Kansas murder/kidnapping. (Or fetusnapping, if you prefer.)
Money passage:
During the coverage of the crime, the status of the Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s unborn girl steadily changed. All at once on AOL News during the weekend, there were headlines tracking events in the case: “Woman Slain, Fetus Stolen”; “Woman Arrested, Baby Returned in Bizarre Murder”; “Infant in Good Health.” Note how a “fetus” — something for which American law and culture has very little respect — was somehow instantly transformed into a “baby” and “infant” — for which we have the highest respect. By what strange alchemy does that happen?
An AP story effected this magic transition all in one sentence: “Authorities said Montgomery, 36, confessed to strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett of Skidmore, Mo., on Thursday, cutting out the fetus and taking the baby back to Kansas.” At one point, when Montgomery was still at large, an Amber Alert went out about the Stinnett girl, putting news organizations in the strange position of reporting such an alert for what many of them were still calling a “fetus.”
Given that fetuses are routinely destroyed in America (and legally can be destroyed up to the point of delivery), it was odd to see such an uproar about the welfare of one. Indeed, it is tempting to say that from a pure legal point of view, Lisa Montgomery simply killed the wrong victim, taking the life of the mom instead of the fetus . . .
Incidentally, the headline of the three-days-old Times story linked to above reads: “Baby Found in Kansas Is Thought to Be That of Slain Woman.” Yesterday, the Times ran a story about similar crimes around the country. It’s headline? “Fetus Cases Show Signs of Similarity.”
Then again, as we all know, at the heart of the freedom of the press lies the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Or something like that.
— Ross Douthat
The Dish 