Media shapes public opinion

This is not news. In any sense…

But when one encounters something so blatant as this, it calls for a look: “Abortion foes win a round in health overhaul.” Cue the reader…

Abortion foes have won a round in the first test of how President Barack Obama’s health care law will be applied to the politically charged issue.

Meanwhile, traditional allies of the administration are grumbling about a decision to ban most abortion coverage in insurance pools for those unable to purchase health care on their own.

Let’s look at this language. ‘Foes’ are enemies, ‘allies’ are friends. So we know where to align our sympathies. Then there’s the euphemistically entangled, re-named abortion group ‘NARAL Pro-Choice America’, cue the patriotic anthem.

Note that “abortion opponents also raised questions” in two states about taxpayer funding of abortion.

But the beleaguered government is doing its best to fend off those pro-life troublemakers.

Trying to head off more problems, the Health and Human Services Department announced last week the program will not cover abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger – exceptions traditionally allowed under federal law.

That’s a more restrictive policy than will be generally applied under Obama’s new health care law.

Take note of that statement, those who believe the ‘Executive Order’ was actually more than a public relations move.

“Abortion rights supporters” say the “more restrictive policy” puts women’s lives “in jeopardy.”

“I think the administration got it wrong,” said Jessica Arons, director of women’s health at the Center for American Progress, a liberal public policy institute. “They have imposed a ban on abortion coverage in the high-risk pools and nothing in the law requires that action.”

The turnabout comes amid growing recognition among Democrats that the nation’s unsettled political climate could cost them control of the House in the fall elections.

This is semantics and politics and political calculations about strategy and profit. Abortion ends human lives. Americans in the real mainstream know that.