ARE WE NOT DOING PHRASING ANYMORE? (On “Pro-Life”)

press stop

How do you describe yourself?

• pro-choice (or pro–abortion access)

• anti-choice (or anti–abortion access)

From my wording, you know where I stand. I’m stymying people who would choose the second category. You would draw a different conclusion if I’d written the choices as:

• pro-life

• pro–baby killing

If you’re pro-choice, which term do you use to refer to the other side?

• anti-abortion

• abortion opponents

• pro-life

I’ll acknowledge my starting point assumption: I am absolutely talking to my people. I’m assuming an us and a them, and yes, by doing so, I make anus—wait, how does that go.

Anyway I’m clocking a rise in the use of “pro-life” by pro-choice people. And I mean use, not mention. Use is when I invoke the word to communicate its meaning. Mention is when I call attention to or say something about the term itself.

“Fuck!” (use)

“I never say fuck.” (mention)

My recollection is, when the terms pro-choice and pro-life belched into being, you chose one or the other term. We talked about the verbal strategy to not use the other term. Your choice registered as an signal of your position, and it was as telling as whether you describe people as “undocumented” or “illegal.”

Are we not doing phrasing anymore? I’m seeing the term “pro-life” from pro-choice people along the lines of:

“The Pro-Life Movement Wins Another Round…” [It sure did in that wording]

A mention would be:

“The So-Called Pro-Life Movement”

or

“The ‘Pro-Life’ Movement” [making scare quotes do the heavy lifting of disavowing and distancing]

Some of us would rather rewrite a sentence than to even mention the term. For example that sentence was originally:

“Some of us would rather rewrite a sentence than to even mention the term ‘pro-life.’”

Even a mention (as in my post subtitle) gives a term currency, a kind of Barbra Streisand effect.

A rewrite of the above headline example to avoid use or mention would be:

“Abortion Opponents Win Another Round”

Has that ship sailed? Do we now use their term, and I’m rearranging deck chairs? Maybe. I notice I’m pleasantly surprised or relieved whenever I see “anti-choice” or another such term.

We circulate the Timothy Snyder quote: “Do not obey in advance.” Using a term the other side bludgeons us with sounds like verbal obedience. I don’t hear them use or mention “pro-choice” for us.