[Previous entry: "Inaugural Virtue Word Exercise"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Christie as Promised"]

01/26/2005: "Truth in Abortion Labeling"

As a site with Safiresque word maven inclinations (but with a moderate rather than hard-right point of view), there’s already been some musings here on a truly descriptive label for the group imprecisely called by one side “Pro Life” and by the other side called “Anti-Abortion.” If you will recall, the difficulty with the term Anti-Abortion is that nobody wants lots abortions to happen. As recently put by Senator Clinton, “abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.” This is in line with the general uneasiness about abortion held at some level by the great majority of Americans. In the same way, the term “Pro Life” is disingenuous. For example, what if I counsel a woman not to have an abortion, but am unwilling to support her doctor’s execution if she does not heed this advice? The new Senator from Nebraska has declared that executing doctors is a Pro Life position. Presumably being unwilling to carry out these executions is an Anti-Life position. While as a Dittohead he would be blind to the irony of this situation, loyal readers of this site will pick up on it immediately. In earlier postings I suggested the term “Pro Criminalization” as the most appropriate term. This is a lot closer to the truth, but it still bears improvement. First, it isn’t clear enough what needs to be criminalized. Right Wingers are big fans of criminalizing all sorts of presently legal activity, ironic considering all the crowing they do about “freedom” and “liberty” (the i word again!) By not stipulating that they want to criminalize abortion rather than, say, flag burning, people could easy be confused. Another problem with “Pro Criminalization” is that, at seven syllables, it’s just too big a mouthful! They need to get the point of any phrase used by their opponents (i.e., us), and they won’t be able to deal with anything that won’t fit on a bumper sticker. Upon reflection, I’ve concluded that the most useful and descriptive term is “Pro Hanger.” It works because when all is said and done the ascendancy of the clothes-hanger as the surgical instrument of choice for abortion will be the primary outcome of reversing Roe vs. Wade. Abortion will become outlawed in Red States but not in Blue States, so any women with the means to get on the bus to either the coasts or to Illinois will be able to get a safe abortion. Thus, the only women affected will be the very poor or the abused, who will see the back alley special as their only option. And “Pro Hanger” not only fits nicely on the bumper sticker, it goes nicely with an ever better bumper sticker graphic - the hanger in a slashed circle.