In a ridiculously headlined article published last Wednesday, Politico managed to lump the incredibly sensitive issue of abortion in with seemingly meaningless topics such as increasing baggage fees, trampoline dangers, and mink coats, all in an effort to show the obscure range of statistics covered by the federal government.
The article, carelessly titled, “America’s Vanishing Triplets,” chronicled random data tidbits of information like sports equipment causing injuries, checked baggage bringing airlines a lot of money, and -- oh yeah -- more women are choosing to literally slash their triplets down to twins at much higher rates than in the past.
Except, instead of labeling the life-terminating procedure as what it actually is, Politico chose to use the term "reduce" to explain the fate of the third unborn baby, a type of wordplay that seems to have become far too common in American culture.
Politico writes, simply, "More women who use IVF are choosing to reduce triplets down to twins."
That's it. "Reduce."
Three years ago, fellow leftist media outlet the Huffington Post published an article about a lesbian couple’s decision to "reduce" their triplets down to two. Their article, “The Decision We Agonized Over, But Do Not Regret,” detailed author Amy Leventry and her partner’s choice to kill their third baby because their goal was to only have two children. These are Leventry’s words on the reduction process:
We had never heard of the term before. For those of you who haven’t either, selective reduction is a procedure that ends the life of a fetus.
She later went on to state that even though reduction involved killing the fetus, it was still different from abortion because the purpose is to maintain the pregnancy.
Now, while abortion continues to be one of America’s most contentious topics, it is not the focus of this article. The purpose is to call a thing exactly what it is, instead of sugar-coating it and undermining the seriousness of its implications.
Politico’s cringeworthy attempt to tie the seriousness of killing unborn babies in with the various colors of a mink coat should be a cause of great concern for the sake of serious journalism and ethics in America.
In both the Politico and Huffpost story, the only thing being "reduced" is intellectual and moral honesty concerning the reality of killing the unborn.
No wonder the story is found in Politico's "The Agenda" section.