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Politics39 outlets ran this3 min read

Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights backlash

The iconic figure's death comes as reproductive rights face significant challenges in the US.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights backlash

What this story says

  • Feminist leader Gloria Steinem died on Wednesday at the age of 92.
  • Steinem's activism was closely tied to the fight for abortion rights, a central tenet of the feminist movement she helped define.
  • The US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, leading to abortion bans in 13 states.
  • Conservative groups are promoting traditional gender roles and criticising feminism's impact on birth rates and marriage.

Who covered it

Left 50%(18)Centre 42%(15)Right 8%(3)

Percentages are shares of the 36 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 3 of the 39 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

78/100

Craft

87/100

Hype

15/100

39 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 3 of the 36 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Gloria Steinem, a central figure in the feminist movement, died on Wednesday at the age of 92. Her advocacy was deeply intertwined with the fight for reproductive rights, which she viewed as essential for women's equality. The movement Steinem championed saw significant cultural shifts, including a rise in women's workforce participation and legislative changes ensuring credit and employment rights. However, she lived to witness a resurgence of opposition to her vision of feminism, particularly concerning reproductive autonomy and traditional gender roles.

In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. This decision has resulted in total or near-total abortion bans in 13 states, with four additional states restricting the procedure to about six weeks of pregnancy. Steinem described this as a setback for democracy. Conversely, Christian conservative activists viewed the ruling as a victory and have promoted a movement encouraging traditional gender roles, often attributing declining birth rates and rising divorce rates to feminism.

Differing views on feminism's impact

The Independent reported that conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation, have launched campaigns encouraging young women to marry and have children, prioritising family over career. Delano Squires, a co-author of the Heritage Foundation report "Saving America by Saving the Family," stated that feminism promoted marriage and family as lesser pursuits. The report proposes investment accounts for married couples under 30. Emma Waters, another co-author, has criticised a "career-first culture" she believes is detrimental to female happiness, suggesting that embracing motherhood is a countercultural act. Beth Allison Barr, a women's history professor, noted that some on the religious right see feminism as oppositional to Christian ideals of household leadership.

What the coverage left out

None of the left- or centre-rated reports mention the specific proposal from the Heritage Foundation's "Saving America by Saving the Family" report to create $2,500 investment accounts for men and women who marry before age 30.

Tags:#GloriaSteinem#Feminism#AbortionRights#SupremeCourt#ReproductiveRights#USPolitics

Coverage settled. We checked this 23 times and stopped on 9 Sept 2026, 22:45. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

18 rated outlets

  • The Independent and The Independent (US) reported that Gloria Steinem's feminism was launched by the fight for abortion rights. Both outlets noted her death at 92 and the backlash against her vision.
  • These reports detailed how the overturning of Roe v. Wade and subsequent abortion bans fueled a movement encouraging traditional gender roles. They cited conservative activists blaming feminism for societal changes.
  • The Independent and The Independent (US) quoted Delano Squires and Emma Waters of the Heritage Foundation. Waters criticised a "career-first culture" and suggested taking a husband's name and embracing motherhood was countercultural.

Centre

15 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated report from the Winnipeg Free Press, presented as a digest, stated that the fight for abortion rights launched Gloria Steinem into feminism. It also noted her death at age 92 and the backlash against her vision of feminism, particularly in light of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and subsequent state-level abortion bans.

Right

3 rated outlets

  • The right-rated digests led on Gloria Steinem's connection to the abortion rights movement. Both reports stated that the fight for abortion rights launched Steinem into feminism.
  • The digests noted that Steinem believed women could not reach equality without the ability to decide whether or when to have children. This idea was central to the feminist movement of the late 1960s.
  • The digests mentioned that Steinem lived to see a backlash against the feminist strides she helped make. One digest specified this backlash was against her vision of feminism.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights…?
Of the 36 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 50% are rated left, 42% are rated centre, 8% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 39. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 36 rated outlets on this story, 50% are rated left, 42% are rated centre, 8% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights… biased?
Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights backlash is one event reported by 39 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Gloria Steinem, feminist leader, dies at 92 amid abortion rights…?
39 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
When did Gloria Steinem die?
Gloria Steinem, a prominent feminist leader and activist, died on Wednesday at the age of 92. Her death occurred amidst ongoing debates and legal challenges surrounding reproductive rights in the United States.
What is the significance of Roe v. Wade in relation to Gloria Steinem's activism?
The fight for abortion rights, particularly the legal protections established by Roe v. Wade, was central to Gloria Steinem's feminist activism. She viewed the ability for women to decide whether or when to have children as fundamental to achieving equality. The overturning of this ruling in 2022 represented a significant setback for the rights she championed.
What has been the conservative response to feminism and reproductive rights?
Conservative groups have responded to feminism by promoting traditional gender roles and criticising its perceived negative impacts on birth rates and marriage. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, many conservative activists have celebrated the implementation of abortion bans in several US states.

Read it at the source

39 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

18
Show 10 more

Centre

15
Show 7 more

Right

3

Not rated

3

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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