MEDIA WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER GUIDE womens media center .com to Covering Reproductive Issues Media Guide to Covering Reproductive Issues By Sarah Erdreich Edited by Rachel Larris The Women’s Media Center would like to thank the organizations that contributed substantially to the information within this guide: the Guttmacher Institute, the National Abortion Federation, the National Women’s Law Center, and Health Care for America Now. We would also like to thank the many individuals who personally contributed. They include Anna Benyo, Gretchen Borchelt, Melissa Fowler, Mara Gandal-Powers, Kim Haddow, Sharon Levin, Elizabeth Nash, Vicki Saporta, and Judy Waxman. Staff and board members of the Women’s Media Center have informed, reviewed and edited the content. They include: Michelle Kinsey Bruns, Julie Burton, Cristal Williams Chancellor, Gloria Feldt, Kate McCarthy, Gloria Steinem, and Jamia Wilson. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER ABOUT THE WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Women’s Media Center has the goal of making women visible and powerful in media. Media are the most powerful economic and cultural force in shaping attitudes and knowledge of facts and events. By deciding who gets to talk, what issues are reported, who writes, what is important and how it is framed, the media shapes our understanding of who we are and what we can be. The Women’s Media Center works to level the playing field for women and girls through our media monitoring, training, original content and activism. Currently, we are rarely using half of our talent in this country, and only hearing half the story. We live in a racially and ethnically diverse nation that is 51 percent female, but the news media remain limited. Our Women’s Media Center SheSource database of women experts is the go-to resource for journalists, bookers and producers seeking women experts to appear on TV and to quote in print and online media. When looking for an expert perspective or source on leading issues of the day, SheSource can connect journalists to leading experts from every field. We also publish reports on the media, such as our annual Women’s Media Center’s Status of Women in the U.S. Media report, which includes the results of our own media monitoring and aggregate research carried out by other organizations that monitor women in the media. We tell women’s stories by creating content — publishing original Women’s Media Center feature stories on our website, www.womensmediacenter.com, and other channels including our radio show on CBS, Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan — and through special projects, such as Women’s Media Center’s Women Under Siege Project, which reports sexualized violence in conflict zones, to promote media parity for women’s issues. The Women’s Media Center’s Media Guide to Covering Reproductive Issues is a resource to use and share. If there are additional reproductive health or rights issues on which you need information, or additional sources and/or experts you need for your coverage, let us know. Designed by Diahann Hill Copyright 2013 Women’s Media Center. No part of this publication can be reproduced without permission in writing from the Women’s Media Center. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER Media Guide to Covering Reproductive Issues Introduction ...................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Words you need to know ................................................................... 5 CONTENTS Chapter 2: Polling, language and public opinion on abortion and birth control ....... 13 Pro-life, pro-choice, or something else: language and framing .............................. 19 Is “anti-abortion” accurate? ........................................................................... 22 Polling on birth control .................................................................................. 23 Chapter 3: The Supreme Court ......................................................................... 25 The Supreme Court ...................................................................................... 25 What happens when a restriction on abortion is challenged in court ..................... 28 Chapter 4: The Hyde Amendment and federal health care coverage of abortion ..... 29 Chapter 5: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and women’s health ........................... 31 The Medicaid expansion .............................................................................. 31 Women’s health provisions in the Affordable Care Act ....................................... 32 Contraceptive coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act .......................... 34 Abortion coverage under the Affordable Care Act ............................................. 35 Chapter 6: State legislation to restrict abortion and access to family planning ......... 37 Abortion bans based on fetal pain ................................................................. 38 Mandatory ultrasounds ................................................................................. 40 Sex- and race-selective abortion bans ............................................................. 42 Personhood measures .................................................................................. 42 Telemedicine and restrictions on medical abortions ............................................ 43 Mandatory counseling and waiting periods ..................................................... 44 Refusal clauses............................................................................................ 47 Removing Planned Parenthood from eligibility for state family planning funds........... 48 Insurance restrictions and the Affordable Care Act ............................................. 50 Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers laws (TRAP Laws) ................................ 51 Abortion reporting requirements ..................................................................... 53 Redefinitions of ‘justifiable homicide’ ............................................................... 53 Chapter 7: Violence directed at doctors, staff and clinics ...................................... 55 Curbing clinic violence: The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act)..... 57 Free speech or harassment ............................................................................ 59 Chapter 8: Fact and fiction in reproductive issues ................................................ 63 Abortion and breast cancer ........................................................................... 63 Abortion and infertility .................................................................................. 64 Abortion and suicide/depression ................................................................... 64 Post-abortion syndrome ................................................................................. 65 Ultrasounds and women seeking abortion ........................................................ 66 Emergency contraception and abortion ........................................................... 67 Planned Parenthood and black neighborhoods ................................................. 68 Abortion and medical necessity to save lives .................................................... 68 Chapter 9: Directory of groups that oppose abortion and reproductive rights .......... 69 Chapter 10: Directory groups that support reproductive rights, health and justice .... 79 WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER Media Guide to Covering Reproductive Issues Why you’re likely to be reporting on reproductive freedom in 2013 America is observing the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court deci- INTRODUCTION sion that recognized reproductive freedom — the right to decide whether and when to have a child — as a right included in the constitutional right to privacy. While women have this right in principle and on paper, they may not be able to exercise it if they are poor, in the military or otherwise dependent on government health care, or if they are under 18 and live in one of the 38 states that require parental consent and/or permission from a judge. In addition, 87 percent of U.S. counties have no abortion services, so inability to travel also limits access. Between 2010 and 2011, state legislators introduced 2,050 new reproductive health- and rights-related provisions, while 2012 ranked as the second highest for the number of reproductive health-restrictive bills. The Guttmacher Institute reports that there has always been a spike in state legislation following an election year. This is partially because there are four state legislatures that don’t meet in even years and, according to Guttmacher, also possibly because legislators are less likely to oppose reproductive freedom when they are up for re-election.1 There is reason to believe that 2013 will again see an overwhelming number of states introducing or passing legislation that would restrict reproductive freedom. The media have a very important role to play in keeping the public informed about crucial developments — both at the state and federal level — that would affect pub- lic health. Legislation or other official decrees that change how women can obtain or pay for health services deeply affect individuals and populations. Reporters and commentators have the power to tell this story, and thus the responsibility to make sure it is accurate. The purpose of this media guide: To give reporters and media outlets factual, histor- ic, legal, medical, polling and policy sources. Covering reproductive issues can be difficult.