Can we finally start calling the anti-abortion freaks what they really are?
The expression “pro-life” has always irked me. It’s a marketing tool, a pretty effective one, that originated in the 70s when the anti-abortion “movement” was trying to rid itself of the negative connotations of its name. (Not to mention the image that was starting to go with it, that of the brain-damaged religious zealot packing a pipe bomb into a clinic as he mutters incoherent spittle-flecked prayers to some loathesome deity.) It started with the term “Pro-Choice” (from the “right to choose” to carry a pregnancy to term or not), to which the anti-abortion movement responded “Choose Life”. From that they appropriated the more positive “pro-life”, and unfortunately, it stuck.
It’s time to un-stick it.
In the wake of the murder of Dr. Tiller, yet another in a long line of anti-abortion violence and terrorism, anti-choicers have lost the right to use the word “life”, so let’s stop playing their game. Stop using the term “pro-life”. When the media uses it, complain. Bitterly.
The sick, dysfunctional cultural zeitgeist that produces sickos like Randall Terry and Scott Roeder is anything but “pro-life”.
(thanks to Bruce for the nudge)
there’s a pro-choice movement and a no-choice movement. i support the former and the latter is just another hotbed of religious terrorism.
Perhaps the term anti-abortion could be used and other
counteracting phrases for these people should be all
cast in a negative light, e.g. non- , anti- ,
as prefixes to emotionally charged words.
They’ve done it to us, now it’s our turn but we should
not sink to name calling. Leave that to the sensationalists
and the Christian right.
psa – Thats right, and we have to keep saying it over and over and over. The only “life” (if it could be called that) that they care about is the fetus. I’m more “pro-life” than the average anti-choicer.
Torontonian – Back in the day, the original term for these FREAKS was “anti-abortion”, and that needs to be brought back into everyday lexicon.
It would be even more accurate to call them “anti-choice” since so many of them are even opposed to contraception — they are the antithesis of “pro choice”.
I’m serious about this: progressive pro-choice bloggers need to start hounding the media relentlessly when they use the term “pro-life” to describe these assholes. We already have some on our side that use the correct terms — we need to keep pushing.
I’m just going to continue to call them fetus fetishists, zygote zealots, forced-pregancy gang, and so forth. Oh yeah, and assholes.
fern hill – Oh, I’ll keep calling them that too — who could resist
But those rare occasions when I’ve referred to them as “pro-lifers” are over. And whenever I see the word “pro-lifer” being used in any media report, I intend to complain vociferously. They changed the language, we need to correct it.
JJ – I totally agree that we need to correct the language in terms of how we refer to them. And in terms of how the media in general refer to them.
“The only “life” (if it could be called that) that they care about is the fetus.” I’d say, it’s not even the fetus that they care about. The fetus is a symbol to them. They only care about a concept of life. They don’t care about, and appear not to be in touch with, real life.
I’m also all for this movement – for the no-choice crowd the right to life ends when you’ve passed the birth canal.
Yes–language matters. They shouldn’t be allowed to co-opt the language of “life” when their actions say the opposite.
For about a year now I’ve been calling them “forced-birthers”, a term I saw somewhere online — perhaps at Pandagon? Too long ago, can’t remember.
Anyway, whenever “pro-life” comes up in conversation I — politely of course — issue the correction, and then get to explain why. Sometimes it sticks.
Anti-abortion is the clearest description, no doubt about it and it needs reclaiming, but “pro-life” in scare quotes as North of 49 uses it or pro-life also works.
Excellent reportage on this whole sorry mess, JJ.
Done…I won’t even do it in “air quotes” any more.
Anti-choice is neutral and accurate.
Forced-birthers is good.
Authoritarian sociopaths, while precise, might spook the horses.
Mike – Authoritarian sociopath tyrants — EEEEK! That scared me.
Yeah, forced-birther is good.
North of 49 – I started seeing the term “forced birther” around the US blogosphere a couple of years ago… I think it was at pandagon, or maybe I blame the patriarchy.
Also at Bread & Roses they were called “the compulsory pregnancy crowd”.
I would so love to see a story on the CBC website that goes like this:
“Compulsory-Pregnancy Leaders Condemn…”
BWAHAA!
Lillian – Well exactly. They were always a marginal movement that nobody really cared about, so it didn’t matter what they were called. They’re still marginalized (and about to be even more so), but their co-opting of language irritates me. The term makes them sound so harmless, and they’re clearly not.
orange – Good point. What it’s really about, what its always been about, is control of women’s sexuality. They can rant and stamp their feet all they want, but if it was about saving fetuses, they’d be the biggest supporters of contraception, and they’re not. They hate contraception. So one can only conclude that they just don’t like women to be boinking, and want to exercise some control (preferably enforced by the state) over when how where and why we do it.
anna – “No Choice” is good too
“What it’s really about, what its always been about, is control of women’s sexuality…they just don’t like women to be boinking, and want to exercise some control (preferably enforced by the state) over when how where and why we do it.”
That’s true, when I think about it, which I usually don’t. They’re all about what women do with their bodies. And they try to link what women do with intangibles, such as “respect” and “morality” and “society”…claiming that if women “cared” about “society” they’d “respect” themselves more and be “moral” and not “slut around” and all that.
Funny that I never see any of them taking on the men. Who do they think women are slutting around with?
Chimera – It’s the ultimate tyranny, enslaving someone to the whims of their own body.
If they were gung-ho supporters of birth control, I could at least respect the anti-abortion position, though I strongly disagree with it. But the tip-off is their anti-contraception stance.