“I was very happy that they reached out…but I do think that they could have used more of what I said,” says Miami Students for Life president Sara Miller, who expressed disappointment that only her response to one question was included in the article.
Miller was interviewed by The Miami Student about her thoughts on the controversial Ohio abortion bill, called the “2363 Act,” which was introduced in November 2021 and seeks to ban abortions at any stage of pregnancy, except when performed as a life-saving measure for the mother.
Miller supports the bill, which would allow citizens to sue individuals for providing or assisting a pregnant mother in receiving an abortion procedure.
The Student published their article on January 31, highlighting several students who shared their thoughts on the issue. Comments by three students were included in the article, two of them expressing their opposition to the proposed legislation. The Student article included several lengthy quotes from pro-choice students, and just one quote from pro-life advocate Miller.
Tim Carlin, the Student’s Editor in Chief, responded to a request for comment by The Miami Patriot on February 7. “When reporting any story, we reach out to a variety of sources in order to obtain multiple perspectives on any issue,” he said. “In the case of this story, it just happened that more students who responded to our outreach were pro-choice.”
Carlin did not respond to the Patriot’s inquiry about the imbalanced representation in the quotes used in their article.
“Not many questions were asked about what other initiatives we have going on, or what are the options for women when they face an unplanned pregnancy in Ohio,” said Miller, when the Patriot reached out to get her thoughts on the quote the Student used. “The interview was just very short.”
Some of the information contained in the quoted statements in the Student article was factually inaccurate. The Student included a statement from pro-choice student Sidra Capriolo, who opposes the Ohio abortion bill. ‘“It’s not like there are scholarships for having children,” Capriolo said. “It’s not like pro-life groups are paying for your medical expenses. That’s just not something that happens.”’
This statement by Capriolo is incorrect, as there are many pro-life organizations who offer financial assistance to women in unplanned pregnancy situations. However, the Student failed to fact-check Capriolo in their article.
“It’s a total lie that [women] are on their own, because there are people waiting at the drop of a hat to support someone in whatever way they can, especially financially,” Miller said in her statement to the Patriot.
One such organization, Let Them Live, raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for expectant mothers in need of financial assistance. There are also many scholarships and grants available to single and expectant mothers. Locally, the Oxford Women’s Care Center provides emotional and material support for women facing unplanned pregnancies.
The Patriot asked Carlin what method the Student has for verifying information from their sources before publication. “We always try our best to verify the information in our stories,” Carlin said. He requested sources on the topic but did not indicate what type of process the Student has in place for preventing misinformation from being published in their articles.
The article by the Student also included a pro-choice student’s religious argument for abortion “[there are] passages that say you become a person when you first breathe air. So not until you are born are you human, and that is straight from the Bible,” said Kaitlin Fisher.
This is a common argument from religious abortion advocates, but the quote provided by the Student is misleading. The line from the Bible which Fisher appears to be referencing is Genesis 2:7, which details the creation of Adam. “The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being,” reads the passage. Other translations of the Bible use the word “soul” instead of being.
The quote from Fisher is misleading, since this Christian teaching does not talk about the “birth” and development of Adam as she implies. Genesis 2:7 is also recounting the original creation of man, not the beginning of life and process of development in an unborn human child.
The Student also included a quote by Fisher which claimed that the Bible gives instructions on how to perform an abortion, but did not fact-check or contextualize this claim in the article.
the patriot is BACK after months of no articles to write an article about another article!!! so glad to have such rigorous journalism following what one specific student is doing <3 great, important work charlotte!