28 December 2011

Anti-choice rhetorical tricks

People keep using the label "pro-life" to refer to anti-choice conservatives. But that is misleading. After all, I too am pro-life. I think life is a great gift from Mother Nature. I'm all for it.

However, I also respect a woman's right to control her own reproductive destiny. After all, it's her body that is used - yes, used - to grow a parasitic embryo/fetus until it reaches viability.

That makes me also pro-choice.

It does NOT make me "pro-abortion", although I frequently hear that label being hurled from the right towards the pro-choice crowd.

Abortion is not something we would attempt to push on people, despite what the right-wing talking heads would want you to believe. Instead, even though we might find the idea of abortion unsettling, we will not impose our own belief system onto others. We leave it up to the pregnant woman to decide (i.e., to choose or not).

And abortion is not something we aspire to, despite what they might say. It is simply a choice for those (hopefully rare) occasions of unplanned pregnancy when parenthood is not a practical alternative for the woman, for whatever reasons.

For the debate to be waged in fairness, the terms to use are "pro-choice" and "anti-choice".

But those terms don't have the spin power of the labels "pro-life" and "pro-abortion". They're not emotional enough to rile up the sheep.

And the term "anti-choice" is perhaps a bit too telling.

Don't be fooled.

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