Best of AP — Honorable Mention

All-formats reporting gives voice to abortion opponents

Mark Baumgartner, founder of A Moment of Hope, an anti-abortion group, watches the door of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, S.C., as members of his group talk with a patient arriving for an abortion appointment, May 27, 2022. Baumgartner estimates about 1,600 women had an abortion at the clinic last year. His group recorded 66 women who made the decision not to end their pregnancies there. (AP Photo / David Goldman)
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National writer Matt Sedensky and photographer David Goldman, both of the global enterprise team, took readers to Columbia, South Carolina, and the front lines of the fight against abortion as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a decision that could reverse Roe v. Wade.

Access to abortion opponents can be difficult — many are mistrustful of media. But the AP pair set out to find people willing to tell their stories. Sedensky and Goldman spent several days with members of A Moment of Hope, a group that assembles outside a Planned Parenthood clinic every abortion day, trying to change the minds of women who show up.

Sedensky reported for text and Goldman delivered the visuals, his video edited and produced by multiformat journalist Allen Breed. The team worked quickly to publish the story before a potential Supreme Court ruling. The resulting package relates the case of one pregnant woman and the conflict playing out between abortion foes and clinic workers as the woman decides whether to end her pregnancy.

The gripping narrative,woven together with voices of both opponents and defenders of abortion and the history of the movement,engaged readers and viewers and reinforced AP’s balanced coverage leading up to the expected high court decision. Sednesky heard from readers happy AP was giving space to a view millions of Americans hold, when much media coverage focuses on the concerns of those supporting abortion rights.

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