How is it that so many people are opposed to "abortion"? And even more people are opposed to "partial birth abortion"? It is hard to determine this, given that these tend to be impossible to define.
It is not just "Partial Birth Abortion" (which is in fact a late-term D&C). It's not the facts ma'am. After all, if asked if women should be forced to risk their lives to carry dead or certain-to-die-painful-deaths or braindead pregnancies to term, who would be for that?
Does an IUD cuase "abortions"? Yes, because they prevent the zygote from connecting and implanting in the wall of the uterus.
It has been incredibly difficult for the forces of life - that is, people opposed to seeing woman stacked up like so much cordwood on the sanctity of the zygote- to move the debate forward. ("In Nigeria, complications of abortion account for 72 percent of all deaths in young women under age 19; moreover, half (50 percent) of all maternal deaths result from illegal abortion among Nigerian adolescents. http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/...
In the UK, abortion is called "forced miscarriage". That is better for the three reasons below.
- No one is pro-miscarriage
Obviously, no one is pro-abortion either. No one goes out and gets drunk like the Onion Parody.
http://www.theonion.com/...
Of course, we all know one blogger took that seriously, http://marchtogether.blogspot.com/ 2006/07/murder-without-conscience.html
and described here
http://www.sassylawyer.com/...
So, the rhetoric has so poisoned the debate about abortion we need a word that is more factual and more real. Calling anyone pro-miscarriage is ridiculous. It is so openly silly that no one but the most extreme could accept it without many years of repetition. Having spent decades fighting the "pro-life" camp, we are unlikely to make the mistake of allowing this to happen twice.
- Women are implicit in the language
The person doing the carying is an inherent part of the mis-carriage. In the "abortion" rhetoric you sometimes get the image of women heading down to the gun rage, to target harmless little feti (fetuses?) who would otherwise never trouble them at all.
Miscarriage puts women back into the picture. The issue here is who must be force to carry to term.
- Miscarriage links abortion and contraception
One advantage that the "pro life" camp has is that people are convinced that abortion and contraception are wildl different things. Using the term miscarriage indicates that these are a continuim. If one opposes miscarriage and all things which encourgage miscarriage, then one opposes contraception. That link needs to be made more clear.
- Reducing miscarriage is a pro-choice goal
Reducing unwanted miscarriage obviously requires more support for pregnant women. It means that women of child-breaing age are not beaten, have enough to eat, and have health care. Of course, it would be great if everyone had enough to eat, were free from physical abuse, and had health care. This rhetoric connects reproductive freedom to the larger progressive platform in a clear way.
Reducing forced miscarriage requires all the same things: women in control of their own bodies, women with access to health care, and women who are not forced through fear of other children going hungry to force a miscarriage of another child.
We all know of progressives who have this weird twich, whereby all people should have autonomy except pregnant women. Pregnant women need to be locked up and watched to prevent fetal harm. Or at least prevented from escaping forced child-bearing. Some of them are in Orange!
Understanding that the termination of a pregnancy is a forced miscarriage makes the connection between progressive and pro-choice clear at the emotional level.
Thanks for reading!