Words used in medicine and media should be precise, transparent, and free from manipulative undertones. Language associated with pregnancy and loss should never sow seeds of confusion, manipulate, or harm.
This issue has come more to the fore as Big Abortion’s messaging has become embedded in the worlds of healthcare and the media and blurred the lines between medicine and socio-political ideology.
In caring for pregnant patients, healthcare professionals are entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of two patients – the mother, who is sometimes vulnerable to the advice and words of her caregiver, along with the rapidly developing dependent child. Both individual patients deserve optimal healthcare and are worthy of protection.
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Integrated assertions vs. protection for all life
Assuming nonmaleficence (not causing harm) dictates conversations and plans of care, patients look to the expertise of healthcare professionals who were presumably trained to not kill, not cause pain or suffering, not incapacitate, not cause offense, and to not deprive others of the goods of life.
Words can be used as “a neurocognitive tool” to influence and control the behavior of others. Words of trusted medical caregivers are important as they knowingly or unknowingly represent beliefs, morals, prejudices, and principles. They can shape a patient’s perceptions of complicated issues.
Changes in words or phrases, sometimes subtle to the human ear, especially in emotionally charged situations, can either frame abortion as a form of acceptable healthcare or affirm the value of preborn life.
Profile of preborn baby at 10 weeks gestation
This generation has grown up under in a different world of science and technology than the Roe generation. Today’s moms see their babies on ultrasound from the earliest stages of pregnancy. They don’t have to imagine what their babies look like thanks to realistic 3D/4D scans. They know the sex of their babies just weeks into pregnancy through a simple blood test. They follow every step of their baby’s development in a pregnancy app. They understand their pregnancies in ways their grandmothers could have never imagined.
With so much information in the palms of their hands, it will be harder and harder to conceal the evidence of prenatal life from them. But can the science that confirms prenatal life be twisted?
Media boosts abortion language
Legacy media, the propaganda arm of Big Abortion, has reinforced abortion-promoting language. Much of this directly contradicts what we’ve long known about the preborn child developing in the womb.
Working hard to rebrand abortion as an act of personal choice, Big Abortion has latched onto terms such as “reproductive freedom” and “reproductive justice” as their war cries while the media willingly repeats this. Both industries, having become loaded with contradictory language, seemingly fail to recognize that in 100% of abortions, reproduction has already occurred.
National Public Radio (NPR), a public broadcasting organization established by the U.S. Congress, openly promotes abortion ideology in its broadcasts.
NPR gives the following notice to its reporters: “The term ‘unborn’ implies that there is a baby inside a pregnant woman, not a fetus. Babies are not babies until they are born. They’re fetuses. Incorrectly calling a fetus a ‘baby’ or ‘the unborn’ is part of the strategy used by antiabortion groups to shift language/legality/public opinion.”
Through its stylebook, the premier writing and editing reference for newsrooms, classrooms and corporate offices worldwide, the Associated Press (AP) surrendered its integrity to protect the abortion industry. The Heritage Foundation outlined the deception encouraged in the AP guide. Some of the of the directives for dishonesty include:
- Refer to “cardiac activity” and avoid “heartbeat” when referring to a preborn baby’s beating heart - which is detectable via ultrasound from the very early stages of life.
- Do not imply that preborn children can experience pain until after at least 24 weeks. However, research demonstrates children have the capacity to feel pain at 15 weeks or even earlier and those who perform surgeries on children in utero routinely use anesthesia for preborn children long before 24 weeks gestation.
- Avoid giving credence to abortion pill reversal which works to counteract the effects of mifepristone, the first drug in a chemical abortion. Falsely claiming that there’s “no scientific evidence” that abortion pill reversal is safe or effective, they encourage their media subverts to hide this choice from women.
- Don’t use the term “late-term abortion.” Instead, they encourage the use of words such as “abortion later in pregnancy.”
Life-affirming language in medicine, not abortion language
Language has long been a battleground in the political struggle over abortion. The American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) has identified some specific wording that has caused patient confusion. AAPLOG discourages any language that could promote harm and encourages life-affirming language as replacement.
For example, AAPLOG distinguishes between abortion and “medically indicated maternal fetal separation.” Unlike an elective abortion, this separation of mother and baby is indicated when there exists a true threat to the mother’s life. Separation is ethically appropriate because of the risk the mother faces and because a previable fetus cannot possibly survive if the mother dies.
On the contrary, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a radically pro-abortion medical association, works to influence with predetermined recommended abortion language. Sadly, ACOG advocates for unfettered abortion “without restrictions, without limitations and without barriers.” ACOG even bans the word “womb” because they fear women will apply an emotional value to this human organ.
Likewise, the American Medical Association states that the “proper label for abortion is healthcare.” Denigrating of any limitations on abortion, the AMA states that all “abortion restrictions and bans are government policies of forced childbearing.”
Tweet This: In caring for pregnant patients, healthcare professionals have the responsibility of two patients – the mother and her dependent child.
In their crusade to provide abortion on demand, some have translated the social goals of cultural and professional dominance into medical language.
Here are some examples:
“Fertilized egg” vs. “Human zygote/embryo, unborn baby, or preborn child”
Abortion ideologists claim that pregnancy does not begin until the new life implants in the uterus. However, at the moment of fertilization, a new human with genetically distinct DNA, is made of a man’s sperm and a woman’s egg. Justifying ending a life before implantation doesn’t change the science.
Unlike other scientific concepts, there is actually consensus of biologists from academic institutions around the world regarding the beginning of human life which occurs at the moment of fertilization.
“Human zygote/embryo, unborn baby, or preborn child” accurately describes the child in all stages of development.
“Spontaneous/incomplete/ inevitable/missed abortion, nonviable embryo” vs. “Miscarriage, fetal death, embryonic death”
Missed abortion and nonviable embryo places distance between the patient and the loss of the child. Research confirms medical language from ‘abortion’ to ‘miscarriage’ improve patients’ experiences.
“Miscarriage, fetal death, embryonic death” recognizes the loss of life of the child.
“Products of conception” vs. “Fetal/embryonic tissue, pregnancy tissue”
“Products of conception” intentionally avoids the acknowledgment of the child as part of the pregnancy.
“Fetal/embryonic tissue, pregnancy tissue” acknowledges the loss of previous living baby.
“Electrical impulse” vs. “Fetal heartbeat or fetal cardiac activity”
Abortion proponents argue against heartbeat laws but refusing to acknowledge the early heartbeats of preborn children. Electrical impulse refers to the electrical signal which causes the developing heart to contract and produce a heartbeat. Sadly, some radiologists and ultrasound technologists are now removing “fetal heart rate” from reports.
“Fetal heartbeat or fetal cardiac activity” accurately describes the child’s heartbeat at that stage of development.
“Nonviable pregnancy” vs. “Pre-viable”
Nonviable pregnancy is a blanket term to describe a pregnancy that cannot result in a live birth because the fetus or embryo has a lethal condition. It implies loss is inevitable. However, a sharp cut-off point doesn’t exist.
“Pre-viable” indicates the preborn child has not yet reached the gestational age of viability.
“Failed abortion” vs. “Continuing viable pregnancy”
This phrase describes an abortion procedure is unsuccessful and the pregnancy continues. It can occur with any type of abortion but is most common with the abortion pill.
“Continuing viable pregnancy” describes a preborn human being who has survived an attempt to intentionally end his/her life.
“Medication abortion” vs. “Chemical abortion”
“Medical or medication abortion” implies that an illness is being medically treated with a therapeutic benefit. Abortion proponents fear that chemical abortion could cause fear and want to promote this type of abortion as a safe, effective medical intervention which it is not.
“Chemical abortion” is an induced abortion by chemicals or pharmacologic agent to intentionally end the life of a child.
“Incompatible with life” vs. “(Potentially) Life-limiting prenatal diagnosis, (potentially) life-limiting fetal anomaly”
“Incompatible with life” is a term that describes a baby who is unwell and is unlikely to survive. It could be used as an encouragement to abort the pregnancy.
“(Potentially) Life-limiting prenatal diagnosis, (potentially) life-limiting fetal anomaly” more accurately describes the variety of conditions classified under this description.
“Abortion clinic/medical or health clinic that performs abortions" vs. “Abortion facility”
These phrases represent places that provide abortion as offering actual healthcare and falsely claim that they perform other procedures other than abortions.
“Abortion facility” does not include the use of “clinic” since abortion is not healthcare and most of these facilities profit primarily from one service – abortion.
Words have the power to distance us from or bring us closer to the truth that human life begins at conception and that life, even if unseen by the human eye. Because there are two (or more) patients at hand with every pregnancy, the healthcare and media industries have an undeniable responsibility to affirm, or at least to not deny that each unborn child is an unrepeatable human person made in the image and likeness of God.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat is the subject of two lawsuits brought by state attorneys general concerning sharing information on Abortion Pill Reversal.
