You can call me crazy, but I think the term pro-life is losing us the abortion wars.
When the first, I'll admit, brilliant PR person coined the term under Regan, it was the beginning of the end. Catchy and self-explanatory, pro-life has had the unfortunate effect of painting those of us in favor of abortion rights as pro-death. We can correct folks as much as we want, there's no way to combat the more than two-decade long use of the term.
At least there was no way, until now.
As I see it, the only real chance we have at fighting back is to reclaim pro-life. I don't mean writing more opinion pieces about how the pro-choice movement is for life too, I mean using the actual term. It makes sense - lord knows we've said it to ourselves enough. Reproductive rights means that every child is a wanted child an that we help people make healthy choices. It's about education and empowerment. We want to put men's and women's physical and mental health first, making sure that we all have the ability to make the best health care decisions for ourselves.
So what are we so afraid of? Sure it's chancy, but imagine a world where NARAL and Planned Parenthood put out press releases announcing their new pro-life initiative to train more OBGYNs in medical abortion procedure. What would it be like if Nancy Pelosi introduced a piece of pro-life legislation providing government funding for low income women seeking abortion? What if we held a huge pro-life rally on the national mall, demanding better more affordable birth control and an end to parental notification laws? What if someone mentioned the pro-life candidate on national news, and no one knew it that meant the candidate was for or against abortion rights?
Liberating, isn't it? As long as we continue to concede use of the actual term pro-life to those fighting against abortion, we continue to give them control over the way our national conversation about this issue plays out. And if we did it by the millions, we could knock the anti-abortion movement's message platform right out from under them. Ok, so it's a risk. But it just might be a risk worth taking.
A version of this was originally posted at http://ericasavestheday.tumblr.com/post/46747195/on-being-pro-life
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I think this sounds like a great idea. I've always been really adamant on not calling the other side 'pro-lifers', I always try to use 'anti-choicers'. We should have a slogan for signs "Pro-life...and pro-choice". Or maybe "Pro-choice means pro-life".
I also think this sounds great. There are some "Pro-Life and Pro-Choice" buttons, bumper stickers, etc. out there, but no real movement to back it up. Anybody out there work for a pro-choice organization? Perhaps we should submit a petition of some sort to show that there would be help in organizing and participating in something like this.
Nifty idea. You're definitely right that the "pro-life" banner implicitly assigns the other side a "pro-death" aura, and this is a really interesting idea for combatting that.
I've always liked "pro-birth" for the other side. I read it years ago on Daily Kos; it posted by a nun. I've since learned that apparently the phrase has an older history than that.
I'm on your side--I'm not a huge fan of "pro-choice," but reclaiming "pro-life" seems daunting and with the potential to be confusing, especially for people like my folks who are pro-choice, but spend their political energy on other issues.
This post could not have come at a more perfect time.
I love the idea. Obviously, I'm traditionally "pro-choice" by society's standards; however, I would consider myself more "pro-life" than those who actually associate themselves with that term. (I'm referring to the ironic fact that many, if not most, of these "pro-lifers" want very little to do with the "life" once it has left the womb...which is why I've come to calling the traditional "pro-lifers" anti-choice instead.)
Re: Cedar...I like the "pro-birth"; it's something I haven't heard before, and essentially articulates the phenomenon I just described.
Yes, I'd love to see this. I've been saying for years, "I'm pro-life, that's why I support a woman's right to choose!" and "I'm pro-life, that's why I support safe, legal, abortions", and "I'm pro-life. Free birth control for all!"
I think the title fits since the other side promotes a procedure that kills unborn children.
I knew a Usenetter who used to refer to anti-choicers as Pro-Involuntary-Gestation, which is unwieldy but has the advantage of a very tidy acronym.
Chauvinist, shut the fuck up, you dumb troll. You can start calling it a child when it's in your uterus, if you even have a uterus. I'll call it one when it's out of mine.