A pro-abortion lawmaker in Kentucky thinks she's pretty funny.
And apparently, so do the media.
The Louisville Courier-Journal, NBC News, Reuters and the Washington Post are among news organizations highlighting a bill that Rep. Mary Lou Marzian filed poking fun at pro-life advocates.
It's a valid story, of course. The issue is whether journalists are willing to do more than lead cheers for her cause.
A Kentucky lawmaker fed up with anti-abortion laws in her state has introduced a bill that would require men seeking erectile dysfunction drugs to visit a doctor twice, get a note from their wives and swear on the Bible to be faithful.
Representative Mary Lou Marzian, a Democrat from Louisville who has been a lawmaker for 22 years, told Reuters on Monday the bill is symbolic but she is glad that it has gotten attention because she is trying to make a point about government intrusion.
"My point is to illustrate how intrusive and ridiculous it is for elected officials to be inserting themselves into private and personal medical decisions," Marzian said by telephone.
Now, how did pro-life organizations and legal experts respond?
Oh, that's a good one! Ha ha ha ha ha. #LOL
Reuters doesn't bother to quote anyone but Marzian. (Hey journalists: Didn't you get the classic Los Angeles Times memo about pro-abortion bias seeping in the news?)
The alleged hard-news stories from NBC News, the Washington Post and even the home-state Courier-Journal are similarly single-sourced and one-sided. I don't know what these reports are. But they're not journalism.
I'm just guessing here, but I suspect folks who believe life begins at conception -- and abortion involves the taking of an innocent life -- aren't guffawing as much as Marzian and presumably the media. They might have interesting information to offer about the laws Marzian is mocking, as well.
Would the pro-life side be willing to negotiate: married men jump through a few hoops to get Viagra and the other side agrees to let a few unborn children live? I don't know. None of the media reports I've seen felt a need to ask.
Yes, there's a word for this here at GetReligion. You can look it up.