Vocabulary is all in the abortion debate

Jewish World Review ^ | Nov. 19, 2003 | Paul Greenberg

[SJackson]

Vocabulary remains the Little Round Top of any political or even moral debate - the strategic ground that each of the contenders seeks to seize and hold, knowing the position could be crucial to the whole battle.

That's why those opposed to abortion describe themselves as pro-life (who would want to be anti-life?) while those on the other side prefer to be known not as anti-life but pro-choice, Choice being a word with all kinds of positive, American connotations. (Shop at Jones Supermarket for a wider choice!)

It's not politic for those who favor legalized abortion even to refer to abortion. Like the deed, the word is so . . . ugly. If they must say the Word, they prefer to speak of "abortion rights," as if it were mentioned in the Constitution instead of being insinuated there by Roe vs. Wade.

By now this debate has gone on for so long that there are all kinds of hills to take in this semantic war. Soon they'll have to be numbered, as in the Korean Conflict, itself a political and legal euphemism for the Korean War.

Long before this president signed this bill outlawing partial-birth abortion, a particularly gruesome kind, those on the other side of this issue began looking for softer words to describe it. A nice, scientific-sounding Latinate term might take the onus off, something like "dilation and extraction" or "intact dilation and evacuation" or whatever - just as long as it had lots of syllables and wasn't too exact. So you won't actually picture what's being done. No need to go into detail about removing the baby/fetus halfway, then sucking its brains out, before removing the remains.

Besides, if "dilation and extraction" were the procedure outlawed, a canny abortionist could just add his own twist to the procedure, literally, and say he was practicing some other quite different - and still legal - operation, even if the baby was just as dead. (Excuse me, the fetus or unperson or whatever euphemism is currently employed.)

[HEY4QDEMS]

The thing that I find most unsettling about partial birth abortion, is not the procedure itself, which is atrocious, it's that there are people who call themselves doctors who are willing to do it.

Knowing how this procedure is performed, I can conclude that only a psychopath would be willing to do it.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

I love it when they talk about the "procedure". That really manages to distance them from the whole emotional picture.

Perhaps we can start calling the death sentences handed down from the courts a procedure, or even a late term abortion.

[Skooz]

A few years ago I seriously considered writing a book titled: "Euphamism: Newthink of the Militant Left."

I'll always regret not taking the time to research and write it.

[PeterPrinciple]

It's not too late.

[Skooz]

You're probably right. I really need to sit down and do some serious writing. My wife has been on me to write a book for several years now.

I respond that I'm too busy. She says that I'm not too busy to spend all these hours on the computer. I have no response to that. She wins.

[Verax]

My thoughts EXACTLY.

[shhrubbery!]

I seriously considered writing a book titled: "Euphamism: Newthink of the Militant Left."

It isn't just by euphemism that Leftists seek to control the debate.

They also seek, underhandedly, to change the meaning of words.

The Left has been successful with changing the meaning of the word, "gay."

They have also been successful at altering the meaning of the word, "racism."

Now the Left is winning the culture war by changing the meaning of the word, "marriage."

[redangus]

It has always been true that those who control the language control the debate and those that control the debate usually win the arguments and those than win the arguments usually make the laws. The Left and big government types understands this. That is why the names of bills often have nothing whatsoever to do with what the bill contains. After all only a traitor would be against the Patriot Act, but many might cringe at supporting the Abolition of the Bill of Rights Act. Gay, racism, pro-choice, anti-choice and women's reproductive rights are only a few of the terms that the Left has co-opted to advance their agenda. I have always believed that if you can't use a term that truthfully defines your position then you are probably supporting something unsupportable.

[chimera]

Sociopaths and barbarians have long recognized the value of framing debates and questions in terms and language of their choosing. History is rife with examples. The Nazis never talked about extermination of the Jews, it was always "resettlement", or "special handling", and "the final solution to the Jewish question". Likewise, communist dictators always stressed "re-education", never brainwashing. Social engineers today call this "sensitivity", or "diversity training". The abortion butchers flinch when confronted with the illogic and bloody reality of their practice, hence the need to cover it over with flowery and comforting language.

[TexasCowboy]

If you have kids who got up this morning and went to school, they continued to learn the new meanings of words and actions which we would be completely alien to us.

By the time they're grown, the original, and true, meanings will be lost in the mists of time.

Our liberal public school systems are pulling the biggest brainwashing scam in the history of mankind, and it feeds upon itself.
This is where we have to start........if it's not too late.

[shhrubbery!]

It has always been true that those who control the language control the debate

The media get to control the language. And the mainstream media are, as we know, tools of the left.

As I posted on another thread, it is instructive to note how pro-abortionists have persuaded the media to say, "so-called partial-birth abortion," or "what opponents call partial birth abortion."

Ten years ago, we needed to launch a campaign to get the media to say "so-called gay marriage" to make it clear there was something not-quite-kosher about co-opting the word "marriage."

It's probably too late, though. The phrase "gay marriage" is as nonsensical as the phrase "oligarchic democracy." But it is already ingrained in the culture.