Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Abortion Terminology and Hate Speech

Abortion Terminology and Hate Speech


I find it fascinating how many people think that by simply saying, “abortion is the killing of a human person,” I am somehow practicing hate speech. It seems like even those who are opposed to the killing of innocent human persons are reluctant to call it just that: killing. Some have even told me not to use the word abortion because it might offend someone who has had one if they have to think about what they have done. The crazy part about this is that these statements often come from those who call themselves Christian and pro-life.


I recently got an e-mail from a Christian who was furious at me for using the term "abortionist". He was appalled that I would refer to someone who performs abortions as an abortionist because that is saying he wants to commit abortions.  Are you confused? I was when I read his e-mail; I actually had to read it a couple of times through just to make sure I was not mis-reading it.


I explained to him that “abortionist” was simply a technical term such as therapist, anesthesiologist or scientist. He claimed that no one wants to perform abortions and using a term like that was hateful. I actually think that using the term is too kind; abortionists don't deserve professional titles.


In almost any genre, field, clique, movement or belief system you will find terminology that is unique and not often know outside of that group. You will find that inside the pro-life movement people often refuse to call the building is which abortions are performed, “clinics,” but rather “abortion mills.” The fact is a clinic is a place where people go for healing, not to have someone else killed. The term "abortion mill" comes from the fact that most of these places cycle through large groups of mothers in short periods of time and will kill the largest quantity of babies in the shortest periods of time; therefore, we call it a mill.


Another term often used is "pro-abortion" instead of the inaccurate term coined by the abortion industry, “pro-choice.” Before you rant at me about this one please read my commentary about this particular subject as it is too much to cover inside this commentary - Tough Questions - Pro-choice or Pro-abortion; is There a Difference? http://www.standtrue.com/pages/commentaries/choiceabortion.htm . The simple answer to this is that if someone is "pro" the right to abortion then they are pro-abortion; this is just basic logic here.


Most pro-lifers will also refuse to say "terminate a pregnancy"; we would call it what it really is: child-killing. I refuse to refer to a child in the womb as a "pregnancy". Why do we feel the need to sanitize abortion and not call it what it really is, the killing of a human person? Why do we have to change everything to not hurt people's feelings by using correct and proper terms?


I understand that there have been some harsh aspects of the pro-life movement and people that have no business being involved in the movement. I know that a few idiots have done some inexcusable things in the name of pro-life and that is wrong.


I believe we need to love those who have been hurt by abortion and be compassionate in our work. I don't think we need to scream and yell at people but rather love them and offer hope.


In the same manner I refuse to dishonor the over 50,000,000 full human persons who have been killed by abortion by referring to them as "terminated pregnancies". I will never afford the term "doctor" to a man who uses his God-given talents to rip babies limb from limb and leave mothers hurting for the rest of their lives.


Why is it that we only want to tip toe around the atrocities of abortion and not other heinous crimes? Imagine if someone started calling rapists "involuntary sex partners" just to soften the term so there is not as much stigma in the name? What if we called murder "post-pregnancy termination" so it would not make the person who committed the murder feel bad for what they had done?  Maybe we could call people who believe it is ok to molest little children "pro-choice" because they should have the choice to do what they believe?


I hope you find these examples ludicrous; I do. What I find more ludicrous is when I am told I am using hate speech for call the killing of an innocent human person “homicide.” I find it unthinkable to reduce the lives of precious babies to simply "choices"; that to me is the real hate speech.


Bryan Kemper bryankemper@standtrue.com

3 comments:

Michelle Zhang said...

Personally, I think both terms are fine.

In the end, any term isn't going to be able to stand for a while entire movement. How can it?

Whatever name we call it, it still stands for something horrible and terrible. That's what we should focus on. Call it whatever it is, don't let it distract you from what is really important.

That's just my take anyways.

Anonymous said...

Maybe then to miscarry is a sin as well. If you have a miscarriage, you were obviously doing something wrong and the child inside of you paid the consequences.

The entire idea that all Planned Parenthood clinics endorse statutory rape and child molestation is a gross overstatement of a couple of employees worried about taking drastic steps for things usually not encountered.

While I don't advocate abortion, I, being a man, have no right or basis to judge women who choose to. Scripture may be seen as law, but only in the eyes of Christians and those who interpret those laws for them.

Keep Church and State separate. Not everyone believes in the far-reaching views of Judaic-Christian doctrine, after all. Levictus
11:10
And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:

11:11
They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.

11:12
Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

And you protest abortion...I hope you don't eat crab or shellfish too.

Michelle Zhang said...

@ royalblueeyes

Does this mean that I, as a woman, shouldn't have a say in male-child molestation because after all, I don't understand what it's like to be a male.

How far are we willing to take that argument?

1 Corinthians 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything.

Some people don't eat shelfish and they do follow the old laws. Truthfully though, according to the bible, Christians are only accountable for "sexual immorality, eating of blood or strangled animals, or eating animals that were sacrificed to idols."