Pro-woman
Unspeak warns of a sickly new euphemism being deployed by anti-abortionists:
When it comes to the issue of abortion, what are you pro? ‘Life’ or ‘choice’? Well, there is now a terribly clever new alternative in this hoary old clash of Unspeaks, as anti-abortion campaigners have begun to describe themselves – titter not – as ‘pro-woman’. UPI reports:
‘We think of ourselves as very pro-woman,’ Wanda Franz, president of the National Right to Life Committee [sic], told the Times. ‘We believe that when you help the woman, you help the baby.’
Your Comments
Lisa writes:
Hi Nick,
I’ve been struggling for weeks with how to reply to this. Partly because it gets me so worked up when I think about it. To my way of thinking, if they were really pro-woman and anti-abortion, they would have to be politically active in counteracting the many reasons for why people seek abortions. This would have to include poverty, patriarchal attitudes, the glass ceiling, the difficulty of obtaining “morning after” treatments for when contraception does go wrong, inadequate or unaffordable child care, the costs of education and raising children. The list goes on. One could add the stress of living and the balancing of work and family life. Many anti-abortionists seem to forget that the “babies” that are “saved” turn into children, and then teenagers. The need for support just increases when they stop being babies. Fix the society first, and then the rest may follow.
Posted: 5 07 2007 - 12:07 | Permanent link to this comment
Commenting is closed for this article.