Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Listening to Language

Language is an important and intricate tool that many people don't really consider before they say something. This great video and post (originally posted on Feministing) confronts this topic as it relates to the abortion discussion. It's important for the pro-choice movement to study its opposition and to listen to what they are saying. In doing so, we can strengthen our own side by better understanding the other side.




In an accompanying article to this video posted on Huffington Post, National Advocates for Pregnant Women's president Lynn M. Paltrow sums up this whole discussion on anti-choice language very well. She says, "so we need to ask -- do the people who use this language really think the mothers who have had abortions are the same as, or worse than, those who carry out torture, kill children, and commit mass-murder?"

She finishes the article by saying, "Claiming that the individual decisions of pregnant women and their families is like or worse than slavery (or genocide) denies the history, the meaning, and the lessons (of these events) and it should stop." I agree.

1 comment:

Ellen said...

That was a great video. I think that if more people actually listened to what was being said by the anti-choice movement, they would be shocked. Once you get past all of their tactics of shock you realize that their words are not only illogical, but also extremely offensive. It illustrates their lack of accurate knowledge about the issue, and it also contradicts what they claim to support. They claim to support mothers, but here they are bashing the very people they are setting up as a model of what women should be and do.