Scott Tibbs
blog post
March 15th, 2005

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"Pro-choice", pro-abortion, or abortion-rights supporter?

I use "pro-choice" and pro-abortion interchangeably. I think the latter is more accurate than the former. In fact, I do not think pro-choice is accurate at all, which is why I put it in quotes. Abortion rights supporters make no allowance for the choice of the unborn baby, who I assume would rather not be ripped limb from limb or soaked in acid. The "choice" of one party takes away the choice of the other.

"Pro-abortion" accurately describes with many abortion-rights supporters who are not "pro-choice" at all. Telling me that my tax dollars have to go to organizations that perform abortions is not "pro-choice". Telling parents that they do not have a say in whether their teenage daughter has an abortion or even gets birth control pills is not "pro-choice".

Despite Mark Kruzan's whining about on AM 1370 a few years ago, "pro-abortion" accurately describes a legislator who opposes a "conscience clause" to make sure medical professionals are not forced to do something that would destroy a human life.

Abortion-rights supporter (ARS) is less inflammatory than pro-abortion and is technically accurate. It could be argued that, from a purely strategical standpoint, ARS is better than "pro-abortion" because it is less likely to cause a discussion over abortion to get bogged down in terminology. While I will consider using ARS more often, I'm not going to put "pro-abortion" out of my vocabulary because, as I explained above, it is often accurate.