Politics
Tuesday February 20, 2007
New York Times Refuses Corrective Op-Ed from El Salvador Noting Further Errors with Times Coverage
Maternal mortality actually went down in years following the tightening up of El Salvador abortion law
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By John-Henry Westen
NEW YORK, February 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The uproar over the New York Times refusing to correct itself on a story replete with falsehoods over abortion in El Salvador last month, continues. The most recent development is that the Times has refused to publish a corrective op-ed from the Salvadoran group "Yes to Life" which points out that the major newspaper in El Salvador has uncovered numerous additional errors in the New York Times piece on abortion in El Salvador.
The NYT piece falsely claimed that women in the pro-life nation are imprisoned for up to 30 years for abortions, going so far as to claim that a woman who was imprisoned for infanticide was actually imprisoned for an abortion. When LifeSiteNews.com provided court documents demonstrating the false claim the NYT public editor corrected the paper and the resulting crescendo of public outrage forced a correction by the NYT editors.
Julia Regina de Cardenal, president of 'Yes to Life', was interviewed for the original NYT piece.
Cardenal's now-rejected NYT op-ed pointed out that "Salvadoran reporters who investigated the issue of criminal prosecutions for abortion said that in the past seven years they found only three women were convicted of abortion and none of them were imprisoned." The op-ed adds, "The primary purpose of criminal prosecutions is to charge abortionists who take advantage of women who find themselves in difficult situations."
While NYT reporter Jack Hitt attempted to paint a horrific situation for women in the country with pro-life laws, the true statistics show that women fared better under pro-life laws. "Government figures," says Cardenal, "show maternal mortality went down in years following the tightening up of our abortion law. Women are safer because of our laws."
One stunning fabrication, which the El Salvadoran papers uncovered in the NYT piece is the portrayal of a Salvadoran female prosecutor. "The prosecutor, Flor Evelyn López, explained that sometime after the interview with Hitt, she received a call from a woman she believed was translating for Hitt who asked her if she owned a silver cross on a chain," says Cardenal. "When she said she did own such an item, the caller asked her to describe it, which she did."
Cardenal concludes: "That description ended up in the Hitt article, as if she were wearing it at the time of the interview. The description of her hair style and make-up was also changed. The end result is that her description was altered, giving her what many would consider a more conservative, religious and less attractive appearance."
With her NYT op-ed rejected, Cardenal has issued an open letter to the media which is available on LifeSiteNews.com here: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007_docs/OpenletterfromElSalvador.pdf
See original LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
New York Times Caught in Abortion-Promoting Whopper - Infanticide Portrayed as Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06112806.html
New York Times Ombudsman Admits Paper Was Caught in Misrepresentation by LifeSiteNews.com
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010208.html
New York Times Finally Issues Correction on Abortion El Salvador Story
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010801.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.