Poor Choice Strategy

Katha Politt has a piece in The Nation regarding the pro-choice movement's most recent attempt to redefine itself and abortion with the linguist techniques of George Lakoff.

Politt doesn't buy Lakoff's techniques or strategies. She feels "that reframing misses the point, which is to speak clearly from a moral center--precisely not to mince words and change the subject and turn the tables. I keep thinking that people are so disgusted by politics that the field is open for progressives who use plain language and stick to their guns and convey that they are real people, at home in their skin, and not a collection of blow-dried focus-grouped holograms."

She then puts forth a strategy by Lynn Paltrow of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women:

"More broadly, Paltrow argues that the right to abortion would have more support if it were presented as just one of the things women need to care for their families, along with paid maternity leave, childcare, quality healthcare for all, economic and social support for mothers and children, strong environmental policies that protect fetuses and children."

The problem with this strategy is that most people with prolife views or leanings can easily point out this position assumes that the unborn aren't part of "their families." Intentionally killing one member of your family in order to care for the others isn't a message that makes a great deal of sense. So then the real question isn't whether abortion helps families but whether the unborn are members of the human family.

Isn't also odd that Paltrow wants to protect fetuses with "strong environmental policies" yet favors the legality of intentionally destroying these same fetuses? How can we on one hand work to protect some of the unborn from a harmful environment yet at the same time have no qualms with the legal and intentional killing of others? How can exposing fetuses to some dangerous chemicals in the environment be bad while injecting salt poison into them with the aim of killing them is ok?

Also notice how Paltrow's strategy attempts to link different issues with abortion. Abortions by themselves, and especially abortions performed at later stages of pregnancy, do not stand up very well. In lieu of this, pro-choice strategists must couple abortion with other issues (birth control, healthcare, etc.) that larger percentages of people support.