Abortion: The Use of Language and Reproduction of Bias
It has long been familiar that in the debate about abortion, there are two groups:
The group that supports abortion, in English, is called Pro Choices or the group supporting choice/decision-making.
The group that opposes or is against abortion is called Pro Life or the group supporting life, which is linked to religious perspectives.
Currently, there are efforts to use new terms to replace these old ones to change and create new understanding, such as the term Pro Abortion or supporting abortion, which is straightforward. Importantly, there is an effort to campaign to stop using the term Pro Life to refer to the group that opposes abortion because the implication of this term gives a positive meaning, even though this group actually does many things that violate the rights of the opposite side all the time. Therefore, the group that supports abortion has stopped using the term Pro Life and instead uses the term Anti Abortion to refer to the other side.
The illustration for this post comes from the Twitter account Liberal Jane, which campaigns for reproductive health rights and safe abortion by using images that do not convey biased views on abortion and do not align with the mainstream media understanding in our country.
This latest image conveys that there is no such thing as “pro-life feminists” because opposing abortion = forcing pregnancy, forcing parenthood, which is contrary to feminist principles that uphold bodily autonomy as the right of the body owner.
To change the bias against the right to access safe abortion, besides providing accurate and up-to-date information about abortion, we must also fight against the discourse of language use, language, and media illustrations.
If you support the right to access safe abortion, please help stop using terms like Pro Life, fetal rights (because according to human rights principles, this right is not recognized), terms like aborting a child, heartless mother, sinful mother, reckless youth, etc.
Stop using illustrations of heavily pregnant women, images of fetuses, scissors, blood, or anything that conveys fear and horror.
Because safe abortion is a right, a necessary reproductive health service that many people need access to. Do not reproduce negative meanings that create misunderstandings, stigmatize, and make people afraid to seek services, risking unsafe abortion.
Source: Facebook Fanpage – Rsathai