Euphemistically speaking…

A monthly column by the Emmanuel Community: 46 Rosalino Street, Woodbrook.Tel:628-1064;emmancommtt@gmail.com

We seem to be living in a time when we do not say what we mean, and we do not mean what we say. This is particularly so in the area of pro-abortion advocacy and provision, where some of the most unpalatable phenomena have been given rather lofty-sounding terms, sometimes in the attempt to make them more acceptable to “sensitive” minds, but more often to befuddle us and keep us unaware of what is really meant.

One example of this is in the terminology used by United Nations bodies. Despite the fact that there is NO international agreement on the right to abortion, the commissions and organisations keep calling on governments to provide sexual and reproductive health care and services (a term loosely used to mean abortion on demand), linking respect for women’s rights in this regard as indication of the country’s progress towards the empowerment of women and achievement of development goals.

Another example is found in the promotion of a pro-choice stance. After all, freedom of choice is one of the most cherished freedoms of our times, and in general, one’s ability to choose is indeed most desirable, as long as one’s choice does not impinge on the freedom of another.

To be pro-choice, however, refers to one’s favouring the legalisation of abortion, or to the belief that pregnant women should have the right to choose an abortion, that is, the woman should have the right to terminate the life of another human being, in this case, her own offspring. The term is not generally applied to the woman who would choose not to have an abortion, or who believes that abortion is wrong.

Perhaps the best examples of obfuscation come from the abortion providers themselves. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which describes itself on its website as an independent health care charity, boasts that they are the UK’s leading abortion care service.

BPAS offers two types of abortion treatment, medical and surgical. They describe medical abortion as the use of the abortion pill, which involves taking medicines to end the pregnancy.

They provide patients with options for disposal of the pregnancy remains; giving instructions on how this is to be done at home in the case of early abortion, and reassuring the patient of how the pregnancy tissue is treated when the abortion is done at their facility.

Another offering is its Fetal Anomaly Care, which is help in deciding whether to end the pregnancy if problems have been detected with the baby.  And one may request mementos of the pregnancy, which include ultrasound photos and footprints.

The mother is, on the one hand, presented with choices regarding her baby, and at the same time must come to terms with the idea that it is her baby that will become the pregnancy tissue or pregnancy remains. To their credit, BPAS does offer counselling to those women who may feel sad or guilty after their abortion treatment.

The terms care, treatment, and medicine, normally associated with healing, have been corrupted in the cause of death of an innocent human being.

In Isaiah 5:20 we read: Woe to those who call what is bad, good, and what is good, bad, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness …

This article attempts to expose some of the deception involved in the promotion of abortion as a desirable component of women’s development, and as a means of providing them with more freedom to pursue their life goals.

We pray for God’s light on our lives, and that we will continue to seek out and promote life-giving alternatives to the darkness that is abortion.