Oh man, in my excited delirium at the thought of kicking some fetus fetishist arse yesterday, when I mentioned SUZANNE's post back here I forgot to harp on an irksome side issue -- her use of the disingenuous term "pro-abort" to describe pro-choicers. (Thanks to CC for the reminder.)
The term "pro-abortion" is hyperbole of the highest order. I don't know any pro-choice person who thinks of themselves as "pro-abortion". "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Let's all go get pregnant so we can have abortions! Yeah!" -- sound reasonable? Abortion is just one of many reproductive choices pro-choicers support (including pregnancy); that's why we are pro-choice. "Pro-abortion" is high-pressure anti-choice hysteria, out-bullshitted only by the toe-curling, pearl-clutching, pants-pissing "Culture Of Death" that they claim pro-choicers propagate. Right, and our refrigerators are well-stocked with "fetus, the other white meat":
The term "pro-abortion" is hyperbole of the highest order. I don't know any pro-choice person who thinks of themselves as "pro-abortion". "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Let's all go get pregnant so we can have abortions! Yeah!" -- sound reasonable? Abortion is just one of many reproductive choices pro-choicers support (including pregnancy); that's why we are pro-choice. "Pro-abortion" is high-pressure anti-choice hysteria, out-bullshitted only by the toe-curling, pearl-clutching, pants-pissing "Culture Of Death" that they claim pro-choicers propagate. Right, and our refrigerators are well-stocked with "fetus, the other white meat":
Maybe it's the fire-breathing, bible-thumping, god-bothering bullshit they wallow in, but anti-choicers seem to take orgasmic pleasure in disseminating myths and misinformation. Another one of their favourites is the myth that Planned Parenthood has to "promote" more more more! abortion because without it they'd go broke. Then *RIIINNNNGG*! Reality calls and leaves a message for the fetus fetishists: abortion is only 3% of PP's business. No matter how they try to twist pro-choice into "pro-abortion", it just doesn't work.Interestingly (if you're a Word Geek like me), even the chronology of the lexicon is on our side. The term "pro-choice" came first -- it first appeared in the Wall Street Journal (March 20, 1975) in an article by Alan L. Otten. Anti-abortionists, anxious to disassociate themselves from the negative "anti" and adopt a slogan as upbeat as "pro-choice", later came up with "pro-life". The term first appeared in the New York Times in an article by William Safire (January 18, 1976). In 1989, Safire presciently wrote:
"In the coming political struggles in state legislatures, watch the anti-abortion forces belatedly try to change the terms of the debate from >pro-choice v. pro-life to the starker >pro-abortion v. anti-abortion. Watch the pro-choice forces resist this mightily. Words count."But in any war of words, the winner will always be the one that best describes the reality, and it ain't "pro-abort".
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