For decades, conservative politicians and activists have dictated the rhetoric around abortion, and for that reason many of the words we use to talk about the procedure are medically inaccurate, emotionally charged, and suffused with stigma. And that includes even the most basic terms we use to describe the debate over abortion rights: The anti-abortion camp has long described itself as “pro-life” instead, monopolizing a powerful word that advocates say clouds their real intention—to ban abortion. The word “choice,” some say, is an imprecise one as well, creating the impression that one’s ability to get an abortion is simply a matter of choosing to do so, when in fact there are many systematic obstacles in the way that keep people from accessing the procedure.
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Other terms are not just imprecise, but flat out incorrect. “Late-term abortion” isn’t a medical term, for example; and embryos don’t have “heartbeats” at six weeks, despite the dozens of bills named for this supposed phenomenon.This language has not only influenced how we talk about abortion on an everyday basis, but has shaped legislation and policy that affects people’s access to the procedure, and, in some cases, prevented people from seeking the type of abortion care they would prefer to have. In a recent study on self-managed abortion, researchers found that some people chose to end their pregnancies on their own—in private—rather than get an abortion in a clinic “to avoid the stigma or shame of having an abortion.”Most people don’t intend to harm people seeking abortions when they use medically incorrect terms; often it’s the case that they simply lack crucial knowledge about the procedure that would help them talk about it in a more sensitive way. (A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that nearly 70 percent of Americans don’t know how far along in pregnancy most abortions occur.)Reproductive health experts say that changing the way we talk about abortion can begin to change the realities of the people who need abortions.“The language that we use in this conversation defines the terms of the debate and defines whether people can access care in a supportive and affirming environment,” said Elisabeth Smith, the chief counsel of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “When we use language that’s stigmatizing, we are simply dividing people and creating additional hurdles or barriers for [patients].”
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Here’s how to begin undoing some of the stigma, according to providers, advocates, and people who have received abortion care themselves:Transgender and nonbinary people experience increased barriers to getting healthcare, and are more likely to face discrimination from providers when they can access it. And when it comes to abortion care, people can unwittingly exacerbate those barriers by implying that it’s only cisgender women who need the procedure.“It’s not only women who can get pregnant, which means it’s not only women who seek access to care,” Smith said. “Leaving trans men or nonbinary people out of the conversation means that when they try to access care it’s that much more stigmatizing and that much more difficult to access.”What might otherwise be called a “six-week” abortion ban has instead become widely known as “heartbeat” legislation, thanks to conservative lawmakers who have used the false claim that six-week embryos have “heartbeats” in order to ban abortion before many people even know they’re pregnant. (Even after a functioning heart does form, a fetus isn’t considered viable until around 24 weeks.)“There’s no heart [at that stage], there’s only a collection of cardiac cells that pulse,” Smith explained. That pulse—which anti-abortion activists insist is the sound of a “heartbeat”—isn’t actually audible, Smith continued: “The sonogram machine is what makes the pulse,” she said.
Women aren’t the only people who get abortions. “Pregnant people” or “people seeking abortions” are less stigmatizing terms.
Instead of “heartbeat bill,” use “six-week ban” or simply “abortion ban.”
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Instead of “late-term abortion,” use “abortion later in pregnancy” or "later abortion."
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Avoid claiming that a state has “banned abortion”—and don’t share news stories that say so.
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Instead of “chemical abortion,” use “medication abortion” or “abortion with pills.”
Use “self-managed” to describe abortions people do themselves—never “back-alley” abortion.
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“When people use that term ‘back-alley’ it evokes a time when doing your own abortion could be very dangerous,” Wells said.“That’s not at all the case now with self-managed abortion,” she continued. “We want to get away from the image of the coat hanger and help people associate self-managed abortion with pills and safety.”