TAKE NOTE!
p.34
Copyright 1994 American Life League

Words and What They Mean

WATCHING AND LISTENING to people speak in the "abortion debate" compels 
one to take a hard look at rhetoric. Words are very powerful, we all 
know that. So I wonder why it is that even those who work to defend the 
innocent have such a problem with words.

For example, the "abortion debate." That phrase is ridiculous. How can 
we debate a cold-blooded, intentional act of murder, even if it is 
legal? And what else is abortion but an act that takes the life of an 
innocent human being - an act premeditated, planned and then executed? 

So, don't fall into the "debate" mode. As a pro-lifer you can discuss 
this baby who lives in the womb, and tell everything you know about his 
or her development; but you cannot "debate" whether or not it is moral, 
even if it is legal, to murder that child!

Pregnant Woman or Expectant Mother?

Penny Pullen, founder of the Life Advocacy Resource Project in Park 
Ridge, Illinois, came up with another one. She suggests that many in 
the pro-life movement have fallen into the "pregnant woman" trap. 
And, as she wrote to me recently, she wonders if any of us remember the 
"pre-Roe v. Wade" days when "expectant mother" was the proper way to 
describe someone carrying a child in her womb.

And, Penny is very astute when she asks if we, rather than talk-ing 
about a "woman's right to know," should be talking about a "mother's 
right to know." For as soon as we use the word "mother," we are 
bestowing on that mother our respect for her and her baby.

Father or Bystander?

Here's another trap we all fall into.  Much of what we speak about, 
write about and do in front of those abortion mills deals with the 
mother and her baby, but what about that baby's father? Yes, we know 
that he has as many rights as his preborn child, though he is alive and 
his baby may well be murdered before the father ever has the chance to  
accept responsibility for his child. But we don't talk about him very 
much, and we fail to see his pain, his grief and his desires. Contrary 
to popular opinion, not all men are rotten to the core. No, not all 
fathers are committed to their new role as dad either, but if we 
continue to ignore them, as the pro-death forces have chosen to do for 
so long, are we simply joining the cacophony of voices that smear men, 
deride men and in other ways deny that men are even necessary any more 
to having a baby, should a woman "want" a baby?

Wanted, Planned or Ordered?

Finally, as we face the Hitlerian mindset of those at the National 
Institutes of Health who are eager to experiment on "pre-embryos" and 
"fetuses," to take eggs from female fetuses and implant themin women 
who want to have children, we have to look carefully at the status of 
the newborn child and all children in our society.


When little Johnny starts hearing words such as "wanted" and "unwanted" 
and "planned," will he one day want to know into which category he 
fell? If you have to tell him that he was "unplanned," will he develop 
a complex?

Or, even worse, if you have to tell him that you looked at a "frozen 
embryo" catalog, called in your order, and arranged to have this frozen 
embryo implanted in your womb so that he could be born, and thus 
avoided that whole daddy thing, what will he think then?

Will Johnny wonder whether anyone is ever really cherished and cared 
for by virtue of the fact that he or she is a human being?

I don't know, but I hope none of us ever uses those buzz-words. I know 
that God has never made a mistake, and that a preborn baby is a sign of 
His hope for all mankind. No matter how that baby came about, no matter 
how sad the circumstances facing that baby's mom and dad, God loves 
them - all three of them.

And as for those ghoulish experiments on "pre-embryos" - all I can tell 
you is that there is no such thing as a "pre-embryo." A baby is a baby 
from fertilization onward. 

How About You?

I invite you to write me and let me know more about the words, phrases 
and oddities in our world right now that deny the preborn baby's 
humanity, turn the baby's parents into murderers and erase from society 
its natural tendency to love and defend the innocent.

Let's make the choice to change our society by taking back the 
language, but most important, restoring the faith and the moral values 
that give real meaning to everything we say and do. 

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