Abortion activists frequently twist words around to make the killing of defenseless unborn babies seem less horrible.
This week, an internal email from the pro-abortion group NARAL provided some insight into the way they use euphemisms and cleverly-crafted rhetoric to manipulate the debate.
Splinter News obtained the email from NARAL deputy field director Travis Ballie to field staff and volunteers. Dated Friday, Ballie’s email tells field staff and volunteers not to use certain words and phrases because they may not appeal to the general public.
His instructions included:
- Do not say/write “Abortion should be/is safe and legal”
- Do not say/write “Abortion is healthcare”
- Do not say/write “Abortion is normal”
- Do not say/write “Abortion rights are human rights.”
“I want to re-iterate, we are not avoiding those terms because WE or OUR BASE do not believe in these statements,” Ballie wrote, according to the report. “We are avoiding them until our Comms team has a chance to present the compelling reasons they found for why these messages are less helpful for us, especially with broader general public communications.”
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Instead, he said they should emphasize a softer message centered around the idea that women “need the freedom to make the best decision for their circumstances.” In other words, leave out the part about how that decision kills another human being – the woman’s own child.
Here’s more from the report:
According to the email, the organization’s communications department “has done extensive poll and focus group testing of messaging to voters and the general public,” and the “research is compelling enough that we have already been instructed to not use the [above] terms in any external communications.” But the email also said the communications department is working to schedule “staff trainings to explain in more detail their reasoning and answer questions,” and takes care to note that the avoidance doesn’t reflect their beliefs and may be temporary …
A NARAL spokesperson later told the news outlet that the email was a “mischaracterization” of their rhetoric. It noted that NARAL’s website uses many of those words and phrases.
But it is election season, and the email appeared to be going out to abortion activists trying to reach voters who may be low-informed or on the fence about abortion. These voters likely are not visiting NARAL’s website. They are listening to volunteers talk about how it’s compassionate to let women make their own decisions and how mean male politicians are trying to get in the way of women’s freedom to choose.
They probably are not talking about how NARAL supports abortions for any reason up to birth – and even opposes a bill to protect newborn babies from infanticide. They likely are not telling swing voters that they want to force every American to pay for elective abortion with their tax dollars either.
NARAL knows these are not winning points, so its staff and volunteers parrot empty rhetoric and deceptive talking points that disguise the violence and injustice of abortion.
