The Washington Times published an article on how homeschoolers are getting behind Rick Santorum. They’re a natural fit, at least with those interviewed. The Duggar family of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” is stumping for Santorum. Here’s how the article begins:

If children could vote, Rick Santorum would have it made.

Drop by one of his campaign stops, and it’s easy to spot a core base of support for the GOP presidential candidate: conservative Christian families with six, 10 or even more children — often home-schooled — who care deeply about abortion and parental rights.

The article was good enough until it got to the topic of miscarriages. Michele Duggar miscarried with her 20^th child. Similarly, Karen Santorum miscarried in 1996. The article states, “Both families home-school and both have dealt with miscarriages in similar ways.”

This is where the story goes off the rails. The reporter tells it like this:

When Michelle recently lost their 20th child, the family held a memorial service for the fetus, whom they named Jubilee Shalom. After Karen miscarried Gabriel in 1996, she published a book of letters to the fetus.

“For the fetus . . . to the fetus”? You’ve seen the shirts women wear that have the word “Baby” emblazoned across the front with an arrow pointing down to the mother’s “baby bump.” It’s not a “fetus bump.” How many “Fetus” shirts have you seen? How many “fetus” shirts do you think stores could sell?

When is the first time or the last time you ever heard a woman refer to her pregnancy as a “fetus”? It’s only a “fetus” when you want to kill “it.”

What’s happened to the Washington Times? Get with it. I suspect that Paige Winfield Cunningham, the author of the article, is biding her time and hoping for an offer from the New York Times. Of course, maybe it was an editor’s decision. Either way, I’m really disappointed.