Reaching the soul of the nation
February 2, 2023
Bishop: churches, countries must address ‘scars of slavery’
February 2, 2023
By Dr Ryan Corbin
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words cannot hurt me.”
An old saying yes, but in present times, one can argue that language is one of the most potent and volatile weapons at an individual’s expense.
With the rapid change of societal standards over the last century, words have been critical in the fight for ‘progressivism’. If definitions have not been changed/ “expanded” then ambiguity has been adopted. This is evident in very recent times with respect to the push to desensitise society to abortion.
There has been a trend to make miscarriage and abortion synonymous, most recently evident with the celebrity Chrissy Teigen revealing that her ‘miscarriage’ announced before was in fact a “medically necessary” abortion.1 Putting pop culture aside, what are the facts in relation to miscarriage and abortion?
As always, we must start first with definitions. According to the NHS (National Health Service) UK as well as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), a miscarriage is defined as the unplanned loss of a pregnancy during the first 23 weeks of pregnancy, while an abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy.2
Planned parenthood (major abortion provider in the US) does not use the two terms synonymously but highlights the medical terminology of a miscarriage as “a spontaneous abortion”.3 Following from this, as aptly put by MedlinePlus; “Miscarriage is a naturally occurring event, unlike medical or surgical abortions.” 4 We can therefore see that miscarriage is a passive/natural event, and abortion an active event.
Regarding the history of early pregnancy loss, the distinction between abortion and miscarriage in the UK medical fraternity occurred during the 20th century with the publication of the article by then professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dr Richard Beard.5
“Beard et al described the offence caused to those women who miscarry ‘by the use of the word abortion to describe their condition’. They appealed to doctors and all health professionals ‘to start using the word miscarriage rather than abortion for a spontaneous pregnancy loss before 28 weeks of pregnancy.”5
This appeal, in line with the development of perinatal medicine as well as the increased acceptance of abortion within society leads to the need to distinguish these two very different medical diagnoses.
This distinction is even more critical in our current situation but with the “attack” on abortion “rights” within the western world, there has been an attempt to revert to the prior centuries’ ambiguity.
What is the aim? Is this an attempt to increase social acceptance of abortion by making it synonymous with the natural event of miscarriage? By elevating abortion to the same tier as miscarriage, the attempt is to guide the average person’s mind towards associating abortion as a ‘natural’ process similar to a miscarriage and therefore, not only nothing to be frowned upon but nothing to be regulated or policed.
This push towards ambiguity is evident in an article posted to the UK Guardian newspaper which is titled “What’s the difference between miscarriage and abortion? For some women, it’s hard to tell.”6
Where has decades of this ambiguity left us? On average, there are 70 million abortions per year worldwide.7 To rephrase, each year 70 million human being lives have been ‘justly’ ended through abortions.
We have shown how integral language has been as a specific ‘tool’ in the normalisation of abortion within society. Can we compare this reality to the experience of the dictatorship regimes of Joseph Stalin and/or Adolf Hitler who account for an estimated six million deaths per regime?8,9
Are there any similar methodologies and ‘tools’ used to exhibit “justified deaths”? For those my age who did not live through those dark times, did we not study this in George Orwell’s classic satirical allegorical novel Animal Farm?
Were not the animal farm commandments slightly altered/adjusted as time elapsed to benefit the ruling dictator pigs and justify their actions? That is, were words not tweaked to increase ambiguity?
To reframe this scenario, we must stress the differences between abortion procedures and a miscarriage during our casual and professional conversations. When we are having our private and public conversations in friendship and confidence, we must be conscious of the soft popular terms used for abortion such as ‘termination’, ‘pro-choice’ and help to remove the veil over our friends’ eyes which society has consciously placed to desensitise us.
We physicians who should strive for absolute accuracy and transparency must acknowledge truth, and remember the Hippocratic oath to which we swore, not the hypocritical oath which society is trying to force upon us.
Exposing the reality of this medical procedure begins by acknowledging its truthful place within women’s health.
Catholic Voices T&T positions itself as a voice of lay persons within the Church, equipped with the tools to properly and more positively address the issues presented within the local public domain. Contact: www.facebook.com/CVTnT
REFERENCES:
2: https://www.rcog.org.uk/for-the-public/a-z-of-medical-terms/
3: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/miscarriage
4: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001488.htm
5: Moscrop A. ‘Miscarriage or abortion?’ Understanding the medical language of pregnancy loss in Britain; a historical perspective. Med Humanit. 2013 Dec 1;39(2):98-104. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2012-010284. Epub 2013 Feb 21. PMID: 23429567; PMCID: PMC3841747.
6: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/24/abortion-miscarriage-healthcare-pregnancy
7: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/002436309803889106
8. https://www.history.com/topics/russia/joseph-stalin#the-soviet-union-under-stalin
9. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/adolf-hitler-1
