Planned Parenthood Abandons 'Pro-Choice'

What term should they use instead?

Planned Parenthood have announced they're ditching the term "pro-choice," and will try to promote women's abortion access without recourse to labels.

Their decision was based on research showing that "pro-choice" had lost the messaging war to the more uplifting term "pro-life." Planned Parenthood's study found that many women who support abortion access are uncomfortable with calling themselves "pro-choice." In some cases women who were technically pro-choice - who supported abortion in some cases - preferred to call themselves "pro-life."

Planned Parenthood's decision has ruffled feathers in some quarters, including Slate's Amanda Marcotte, who says that "pro-choice" was a useful label and that going label-free will do Planned Parenthood's advocacy no favors.

But others argue that nixing the label is long overdue. "Pro-choice" is an off-putting term that trivializes the weight of the decision to have an abortion, says Slate's Katie Roiphe. It makes the choice sound like selecting a type of latte or a lunchtime salad, or like "picking a red or blue car, thereby trivializing the abortion decision," writes Tracy Weitz in RH Reality Check.

Planned Parenthood should instead adopt the term "Pro-Freedom," Roiphe suggests.

Via Buzzfeed, Slate and RH Reality Check.

What's the best term for people who support access to abortions?

[DARSB]

We already have a noun for people who seek services in a medical facility: patient.

[texas_cutie75]

Exactly!

[PNWest]

Short, succinct and accurate. Thumbs up.

[marine1]

you gotta love these play on words but the intended conclusion will always be the same.

[Zazziness]

Their mistake was in accepting the misleading "pro-life" term from the opposition. They are anti-choice.

[crusader]

Then I geuss you are anti-life. Actually the choice is made at teh time you decide not to protect against unwanted pregnancy. Or maybe you should be called the anti-choice side as you do not allow the unborn the option of having a choice.

[PoliticalSpice]

@crusader Anti-life? well perhaps to bush and his supporters. but I'm all for little kids, once they are born.

[crusader]

@PoliticalSpice Oh but two days before that it is okay to kill them?

[PoliticalSpice]

@crusader you misunderstood. I'm pro-death for bush and his supporters now, not just two days ago.

[methinks]

@PoliticalSpice So, before they are born, they aren't human? Again, calling a unborn child a fetus desensitizes us to what is going on. "I'm going to abort my fetus" doesn't sound that bad when it is referred to as "a thing," but sating "I'm going to abort my unborn child" humanizes that life, doesn't it?

[Heavy-Fed]

New Planned Parenthood slogan-->"Kill them all... let God sort them out!"

[tomincali]

and it should be labled just like you posted,the kindness soft wording and all other bs to take away what it is exactly needs to be removed. going for an abortion it should say so you are here to kill or prevent the life of that baby in you. not telling it like it is not right.

[methinks]

@tomincali I always said that the statement, "a woman's right to choose" was incomplete.

It should be "a woman's right to choose to murder her baby."

[Heavy-Fed]

@tomincali Planned Parenthood is an oxymoron anyway... shouldn't it be called Planned Un-Parenthood? Or Un-Planned Parenthood Solution?

[SickOfEveryone]

I actually love this. I want a bumper sticker. Because I have no grand illusions about my stance on bringing unwanted children into this awful, awful world.

[SickOfEveryone]

@tomincali Can "kill" and "prevent the life of" really be used interchangeably here? It does not sound like the same thing.

[Sharpshooter]

I KNOW.... I KNOW....... Bush's Fault.

Oh wait was that in poor taste?

How about Gun Safety..... Now that's funny.....

[thejimbo]

I guess pro-death is off the table?

[PoliticalSpice]

Bush's Fault. Finally, your getting it. About time you started to understand :)

[AtheistStand]

"Educated Choices" Or "Responsible Choices"

[Sharpshooter]

Kidding aside, it does my heart good to see this blowing up in the faces of the PC Police.

I remember the lingustic nazis getting all up in arms over them being referred to as Anti-choice or Pro Abortion....

Labeling products is a good thing, labeling ideals doesn't because it over simplifies the issue.

[mimi57]

Oh, Boo Hoo...Who cares?!

[PoliticalSpice]

Exactly, I don't care what it's called, as long a the wonan has the right to decide.

[mimi57]

@PoliticalSpice To a point, once the baby can live independent of the mother's
body and they do a partial abortion, then I feel it's murder...

[PoliticalSpice]

@mimi57 I had no idea that was your position, I thought you would be a solid no. So essentially you support roe v wade?

[kirbstomp1]

@mimi57 - the only time I see it reasonable for abortions past the first trimester (after this time the heart is beating) is when the mother is in danger of losing her own life. The heart and brain (being an essential organs) are formed at this time. Since human life is based off of consuming oxygen to pick up electrons which allow for ATP to be processed by the cells is when I contend the organisms life has begun. This can only happen with a circulatory system (the heart and its system) and a program to run it (brain). At this point the organism is a living individual and should enjoy all the rights we have, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; unless it endangers the mother.

[mimi57]

@PoliticalSpice It is a very personal question for me... I think there are reasons for abortion. Such as rape, incest, life of the mother. I also think if it is known that the baby will be born w/out a brain, genetic diseases such as Tay-sachs, ALS.,etc., I
probably would opt to abort. I've witnessed the lives of people who have to live with
this, and it is very difficult for them and the families. Difficult is an understatement, the quality of life is so limited and painful for people with genetic disorders, the lack
of being able to control your body movements, that slowly but steadily progress is just so hard to witness, most all are placed in homes and the care is often not
adequate, to say the least.

That said, as soon as a woman knows she is pregnant, within the first six weeks is
the only time I feel abortion is acceptable. Some women wait and have a late term abortion. Partial birth abortions are nothing less than murder. The "doctor" places
a shunt into the brain of the baby and kills it, then pulls it out of the birth canal dead.
To do it any other way would be murder, and that is how they get away with it. To
me it is murder, plain and simple and should be punisible as such, but it's not. It's
just so wrong...

[cleverusername]

Wait what? Planned Parenthood are advocates for abortion? Here is a better idea why don't they change their name. How can you be a parent if you have an abortion? What part of parenthood involves raising a dead fetus?

[AceLuby]

Pro-liberty

[Dan_Tien]

"Abortion rights" is a term already in use. "Pro-Freedom" is even more ridiculous than "Pro-choice".

[MadAmerican]

How about "Baby killers"?

[PoliticalSpice]

That title already belongs to bush for all tge babies killed when he launched war on Iraq.

[OhWiseOne]

Excellent post. Wonder why that wasn't on the poll?

[MadAmerican]

@PoliticalSpice OK Bush hater-how many dead soldiers is Obama responsible for?

[PoliticalSpice]

@MadAmerican Ahh, but he didn't start the war, still, I concede your point he should be out by now. I think the u.s. should mind its business. The only legit war we are in is against al quada. They attacked us. In my defense let md say that if a article on here said a stream in the gobi desert had dried up, there would be at post on the article attacking obama. My comment is just in keeping with the politix debate format...

[MadAmerican]

@PoliticalSpice haha I get it. Have a good day.

[jmann88]

How about pro murders

[ConserveUSA]

Yes they are indeed. Adam Lanza Medical Facility....

[texas_cutie75]

Whew! Touchy subject y'all!! I think abortions here lately have been used more and more as birth control. I don't agree with it in that capacity. In some cases, yes, abortions can be beneficial. I, even being a nurse, have to stop for a second and think when I hear the term "Pro-choice". Renaming is their choice, you still cant change the color of that particular animal.

[Hbomb]

how about bowlegged bow wows

[Romney2012]

Pro-death

[AlexMIA]

How about Pro-Freedom on your dime only?

[Hbomb]

How could a woman refer to the fetus as just another part of her body when the creature growing inside has a totally different DNA code from the mother? When the sperm and the egg unite in conception, a new creature begins to grow-a creature with an entirely different genetic code from the mother and the father. To define the fetus, therefore, as part of the mother's body is to assert a dangerous half-truth.

[riker]

I think baby killers pretty much sums it up.

[jessejaymes]

Here's a novel idea. How about calling themselves PLANNED Parenthood and working to that ends? Planning ahead? Birth control, the morning after pill? How about taking yourselves out of the abortion debate by simply refusing to identify yourselves as the primary warlords of surgical abortion and instead recognizing that most of America support choice and that choice includes other options for a PLANNED parenthood other than surgical abortion. How about it PH? Why aren't you in the forefront of advocacy for the morning after pill like you are for surgical abortion? Why aren't you willing to show some compromise in CHOICE and help get this BS settled down so we can focus on more important problems in America?

[Mia]

The progressives have an agenda of enslavement, racism, no personal responsibility, lack of respect for the sanctity of life. It is a destructive agenda that constantly needs rebranding.