Is 'Pro-Choice' An Outdated Term?

Everybody knows that “pro-choice” means pro-abortion — even abortion advocates. Feminists started using the euphemism to shift the focus and garner support for removing that unwanted “blob of tissue.” Even if the “medical” procedure truly disgusted you, you could still say, with a straight face, that you supported a woman’s choice to kill her own child.

Now feminists of a certain age bemoan the decline of the pro-choice label. It’s purportedly old-school and meaningless. Janet Colm, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central North Carolina, told the New York Times that the “labels we’ve always used about pro-choice and pro-life — they’re outdated and they don’t mean anything. I used to be a one-issue voter…but I think most younger people today aren’t.”

Although she includes the term pro-life as outdated and meaningless, it doesn’t pack the same punch. I oppose abortion, and unlike pro-abortion people, I’ve no need for euphemism. Pro-life or even anti-abortion suits me and other pro-lifers just fine. I don’t believe women have to resort to killing their babies. And the child has a right to live, particularly when his presence in the womb doesn’t threaten her life.

Why is the other side having issues with their position? Could it possibly have something to do with the irreversible consequences of the so-called right — dead babies? Of course, they have to emphasize “choice,” and “health,” and economic factors to detract from the heinous act.

“I just think the ‘pro-choice’ language doesn’t really resonate particularly with a lot of young women voters,” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said. “We’re really trying to focus on, what are the real things you’re going to lose? Sometimes that’s rights. Sometimes that’s economic or access to health care for you or for your kids.”

Are more younger women shunning the label or the act? According to Planned Parenthood’s video (linked in the NYT article), it’s the label. So what is the abortion mill worried about? Are they afraid of a paradigm shift in how women view the unborn? As technology advances, we’ll know even more about the development of unborn babies. The age of viability might be reduced to earlier in the pregnancy. The court in Roe held that women have a right to an abortion until viability.

Planned Parenthood’s new message represents a softer approach, but it’s no less lethal to the voiceless and vulnerable child in the womb. Former labor and delivery nurse Jill Stanek wrote that she’s unnerved by Planned Parenthood dropping the pro-choice label, and she’s “waiting for the other shoe to drop. What would be the new and improved euphemism for us to battle?”

Photo credit: Free Verse Photography (Creative Commons) – Some Rights Reserved