Pro-abortionists seem fond of observing that the pro-life movement is changing the language it uses to describe key terms. This is either explicitly designated a conspiracy to deprive women of their “rights,” or it’s left for the reader to surmise that it is so.
Of course the language is changing. The legal context of the pro-life movement has changed, and we must adapt. Our scientific insight into the earliest stages of gestation has improved in the past 50 years, as well.
But importantly, these vocabulary changes do not reflect any change in the reality we perceive, hope to convey, and intend to protect.
There is no scheme. There is only the abiding reality of the preborn child, the precious mother who faces the possibility of abortion and the battle to protect both of them.
It’s also important to be clear about what kind of language shifts are happening, and why. There are two main sorts: Legal or political language, and moral language.
Much of what’s highlighted by the alarmist New York Times opinion piece alleging that pro-lifers are trying to “redefine abortion itself,” for instance, is legal and medical clarification. These tweaks to vocabulary are necessary now that the issue of abortion is actively subject to both litigation and legislation.
These redefinitions are essential, but they’re also limited. It’s practical language, the language of lawyers and judges and embattled doctors. It’s language being used to realize or pursue very specific policy goals. These redefinitions help shape reality.
It’s entirely different from the moral language we use to describe the women and children afflicted by abortion. It is now, and always has been. Moral language reflects things which cannot and will not change, but it may very well adapt to suit circumstances. These changes do not aim at forming reality, but revealing it.
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We can take the emergence of “preborn” as a descriptor of children in the womb as an example — it’s one that’s close to my heart. To say a child is “unborn” is true, but somehow incomplete when our goal is to convey the personhood of a child before birth.
“Preborn” emphasizes that the child is always a person, destined for birth, oriented towards life from the very beginning. Being born doesn’t change anything about them, in moral terms. They are who they’ve always been.
These little nuances are critically important in the fight to defend preborn life, because every inch of moral ground we can reclaim matters. Every tiny concession we can win from the pro-death culture is a light that shines just a little bit brighter on our cause.
On the other hand, pro-abortionists change language to obscure the truth. Under the guise of “women’s healthcare,” over 63 million babies were aborted in the United States, from 1973 to 2022.
Millions of these post-abortive mothers grieve for the rest of their lives. Their families are forever deprived of the joy that child could have brought to them, and the world is deprived of them too.
Pro-abortionists contend that untrammeled, unsupervised access to chemical abortions is a “right,” or is somehow “reproductive justice.” These chemical abortions often take place at home, and women are frequently underprepared for what the procedure actually entails.
They deliver a tiny dead child — more or less recognizable as a baby, depending on gestational age — onto the bathroom or shower floor, or into their toilet.
They do this at home, often alone.
I struggle to see how shuddering alone in grief, confusion and pain on the bathroom floor is empowering, or the result of any form of justice. It’s the tragic result of pro-death lies and obscurantism.
Speak clearly, simply, honestly and lovingly on behalf of and to vulnerable mothers and their preborn children. They need us now more than they ever have.
Dan Steiner serves as founder and president of PreBorn!, which serves the pregnancy clinic movement across America by placing ultrasound machines as well as providing executive and sonographer coaching, organizational development, marketing and fundraising.
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