The following comes from a Nov. 3 column by Anne Hendershott on Catholic World Report.
From tee-shirts proudly proclaiming “I had an abortion!” to Christmas cards announcing “Choice on Earth”, Planned Parenthood has designed dozens of marketing strategies over the past four decades to convince Americans that the “choice” to end the life of an unborn child is “normal” and good, even morally upright.
The “pro-choice” label was created in 1975 when abortion proponents decided that the phrase “pro-abortion” was taboo. While legal, abortion was still viewed by many as a form of deviant behavior. The stigma remained. Few wanted to label themselves as “pro-abortion” and the pro-choice phrase was enlisted to describe those in favor of abortion rights but unwilling to say the ugly word. But it was always implied when those favoring abortion rights described themselves as “in favor of a woman’s right to choose.” Everyone knew the code. Everyone knew that the woman’s right to choose was always “for abortion.”
Still, the euphemistic “choice” seemed to work for nearly four decades. It has been used by “pro-choice” Catholic politicians including Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and long list of Kennedys and Cuomos who constantly insist on the need to protect a woman’s right to choose. Such Catholic politicians could speak in code—reassuring voters that they would vote in favor of abortion without ever saying the word “abortion”. But, like all euphemisms, what is hidden often remains clear, and as the culture has begun to move steadily in the pro-life direction, the pro-choice phrase began to seem a bit too explicit.
Planned Parenthood has realized that. Polling funded by Planned Parenthood in 2012 appeared to “show some dissatisfaction with the labels.” In the poll, 7% of self-described pro-choice voters thought Roe v Wade should be overturned. And in an online survey of recent voters, 12% said they were both pro-life and pro-choice, and another 12% said they would not use those terms. When asked for their moral opinions on abortion, 40% of those voters said “it depends on the situation.”
In its article, “Planned Parenthood Moving Away from Choice”, Buzzfeed.com described a 2013 press briefing in which Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood president, said “it’s a complicated topic and one in which labels don’t reflect the complexity.” Richards added that “the groups polling showed most Americans could get behind a more nuanced statement of principles.” Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens agreed, claiming that the word “choice itself might be causing problems…When choice got assigned, women didn’t have as many choices…” Since women now have more rights and freedoms, she said, maybe “’choice’ as word sounds frivolous.”
For the past few years, Planned Parenthood has been trying to replace the “pro-choice” label with something else. Lauguens suggested that Planned Parenthood poll tested “making abortion rare” but it polled “poorly” because women found it “judgmental and shaming.” In response, Cecile Richards tried something “more nuanced.” The euphemistic “women’s health issues” was enlisted to fill the void, and for a while—especially in the debate surrounding the funding for abortion and abortion inducing drugs in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act—the phrase “women’s health” began to replace the pro-choice label. The manufactured “Republican War on Women” was enlisted as code for attempts by pro-life politicians to restrict abortion. Instead of pro-choice, those same pro-abortion Catholic politicians who were “personally opposed but pro-choice” began to describe themselves as committed to “women’s health issues.” They understood that their base would know they meant abortion, but they must have hoped that those who are beginning to have concerns about “a woman’s right to choose” [abortion] might not be put off by the loaded phrase.
Indeed, President Obama has been lauded by many within the Catholic academic world, including Pamela Trotman Reid, president of St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford, Connecticut, who told a reporter for the Hartford Courant that Obama was a “kindred spirit.” As an African-American woman, Reid said that she would expect much from an Obama presidency and revealed her concerns about continuing women’s access to abortion by saying that “the next president is likely going to make appointments to the Supreme Court. That could affect the right of women to make choices about their own health. These are issues of incredible importance.”
The fact that real health concerns about access to health care for men, women and children have arisen through the passage of healthcare “reform” brought by the Affordable Care Act, suggests that “women’s health issues” and “War on Women” may in fact need to be replaced. However, a replacement for the pro-choice label has not yet been found. In fact, there are signs that the reliable “pro-choice” may be making a comeback.
Earlier this year, the euphemistically named “Abortion Care Network” held what it called its first “Abortion Stigma Busting Video Competition”. Both of the winning videos focused on “choice.” One of the two winners was a video entitled: “Women Have Abortions Every Day: It’s Just One Choice,” produced by the Irish Family Planning Association and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. In that video, women are portrayed as making the choice to have an abortion as a “normal” choice like the decision to buy a condo or a car, go to graduate school, or get a divorce—or obtain a restraining order against a spouse. Just one choice among many of the choices we make throughout our lives.
In the second award-winning video, Emily Letts, a twenty-five year old former actress—she is now, a New Jersey abortion clinic counselor—videotaped what she described as her “surgical abortion” procedure and submitted it for the competition to show others, as she told an interviewer for Philadelphia Magazine that she felt “super great about having an abortion.” In the prize-winning video itself, Letts exclaims “cool!” after the abortion. In an essay for Cosmopolitan magazine Letts writes that she let a camera crew film her first trimester abortion in order to dispel some myths about what it is like to have an abortion: “A first trimester abortion takes three to five minutes. It is safer than giving birth. There is no cutting, and risk of infertility is less than 1 percent.” Throughout her videotaped “abortion” Letts explains that she is “not ready” to have children. “I’m lucky because I feel completely comfortable with the decision. I’m supported by everyone.” Guitar music is faintly heard in the background throughout the video, and a kind doctor is heard reassuring Letts throughout the procedure. When the abortion is over, Letts smiles and says “I feel good. I’m done. Yay.”
While Letts claims that her award-winning video was created to diffuse some of the confusion that clouds the issue of abortion, her choice to make light of an abortion procedure created an uproar—even in the pro-choice community. According to Lifesite news, the interviewer for Philadelphia Magazine, Victor Fiorillo said he had heard from many women “who self-identify as pro-choice” who found the video “creepy”, telling Letts, “some said it should have been kept private some say that you were quite glib.”
Casey Fiano of Live Action News has joined others in the pro-life community to charge that Letts did not even have an abortion on that video. Kristen Iglesias at Clash Daily claims that the entire video was staged. Iglesias listed the inconsistencies and “strange coincidences” that led her to believe that Letts, with the help of her employers at the Cherry Hill (New Jersey) Women’s Center, fabricated the video. Letts claimed to be only two to three weeks pregnant—highly suspicious no matter which way you look at it. According to Casey Fiano, “while Letts claims that she chose to have a surgical abortion specifically for the sake of doing the video, that seems hard to believe. In order to have an aspiration abortion, a woman has to be at least six weeks pregnant.”
Whether Letts videotaped a real abortion or not is up for debate. More clear is the constant attempt by the pro-abortion side to define down the deviance of killing the unborn child in the womb—and the continued failure to remove the stigma of abortion. The Planned Parenthood tee-shirts failed because very few women would want to stand up and say proudly, “I had an abortion.” Few purchased the shirts as most women are ashamed of such a thing. The post-abortion recovery community has stepped in to help women cope with their decision to have an abortion. Some never fully recover from such an act; they know that abortion can never be de-stigmatized. The deviance of such a barbaric act can never be defined down because no matter what euphemism the pro-abortion side chooses to call it, abortion is still killing a child and no one can ever be proud of such a thing.
To read the original posting, click here.
“Choice on Earth”
“Arbeit macht frei”
Same band, different tune.
ABORTION is the torture/murder of an innocent human being for the convenience of another.
EVERY high school biology and health class should show the following videos.
They are medical and scientific only.
This is part of what Planned Parenthood does not want you and your children to see regarding Human Development,
“Endowment for Human Development”
https://www.ehd.org/movies.php?mov_id=44
Save this link and pass it on. Show it to your teens and others.
Center for Disease Control on their web site states regarding sexually transmitted disease –
” ABSTINENCE: The most reliable way to avoid infection is to not have sex (i.e., anal, vaginal or oral). ”
https://www.cdc.gov/std/program/default.htm
How much time and money does Planned Parenthood put into teaching this?
https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats/STI-Estimates-Fact-Sheet-Feb-2013.pdf
“NUMBER of ABORTIONS – Abortion Counters”
Each real-time abortion counter is based on the most current statistics* for the number of abortions in the US & the number of abortions Worldwide.
https://www.numberofabortions.com/
ABORTION and EUTHANASIA are two of the Non-Negotiable INTRINSIC EVILS,
as well as Homosexual Marriage, Human Cloning, and Embryonic Stem Cell Research.
Under no circumstances may they be approved.
For Catholic Voters – (Save these as favorites and share with others.)
“Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion, General Principles ”
https://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/04-07ratzingerommunion.htm
(Note there is nothing in the USA today that is proportional to the approx.
I MILLION abortions annually.)
‘Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics’
https://www.politicalresponsibility.com/voterguide.htm
YOUR ROLE AS A CATHOLIC VOTER
FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLES
WHICH POLITICAL OFFICES SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT?
HOW TO DETERMINE A CANDIDATE’S POSITION
HOW NOT TO VOTE
HOW TO VOTE
WHEN THERE IS NO “ACCEPTABLE” CANDIDATE
Mark your calendar, and make your plans.
MARCH for LIFE – – starts at noon on THURSDAY, January 22, 2015 and as customary, will be on the National Mall, WASHINGTON, DC.
https://marchforlife.org/details/
and
https://marchforlife.org/march-for-life-2015/rally-march-info/
WALK for LIFE – – SATURDAY, January 24, 2015 in SAN FRANCISCO schedule – https://www.walkforlifewc.com/event-info/event-schedule/
CCC: ” 2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.
Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves.
Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes. ”
CCC: ” 2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense.
The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.
A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” “by the very commission of the offense,” and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.
The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.”
CCC: ” 2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, “if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual. . . .
It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence.”
When the LIFE of the MOTHER is at stake –
” THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN DIRECT ABORTION AND LEGITIMATE MEDICAL PROCEDURES”
by USCCB, June 10, 2009.
https://www.usccb.org/about/doctrine/publications/upload/direct-abortion-statement2010-06-23.pdf
What was attempted at the Family Synod was even Creepier than the Creepy article above. As the leadership in the Church goes the world goes.
Full Definition of NUANCE : a very small difference in color, tone, meaning, etc.
1: a subtle distinction or variation
2: a subtle quality : nicety
3: sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicateshadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value)
“Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood president, said “it’s a complicated topic and one in which labels don’t reflect the complexity.” Richards added that “the groups polling showed most Americans could get behind a more nuanced statement of principles.”
Cecile Richards says it’s a complicated topic in which labels don’t reflect the complexity. Where have faithful Catholic heard that same kind of nuanced language? As the leadership in the Church goes, the world goes. Canon 915, we are told has far too many complexities to use to label the Catholic politicians who legislate the slaughtering of the most helpless. Our shepherds have used nuanced language to distance themselves from their culpability when shirking their duty as shepherds.
continued…
continued from November 6, 2014 at 9:34 am
The faithful see right through this dereliction of duty just as we see through Cecile Richards attempt to use nuanced language to disguise the real truth. Cecile Richards plots out nuanced shades of language phrases such as “women’s health issues” and this shading of words is deliberately designed to confuse….meanwhile compromised shepherds plot to use nuanced language such as “qualities and gifts” and “precious relationships” to give nuanced shade to the darkness and thus confuse. God is not fooled. God is watching his shepherds only use Canon Law when they are silencing someone faithful or defending the scandalous funeral extravaganza of a politician who ushered in abortion on demand and so called same sex marriage.
Cecile Richards is in great need of a shepherd too and she is only using the very same underhanded plotting strategy that was recently used by certain compromised shepherds at the Family Synod. Searching for nuanced language that will deceive the trusting in order to sell the culture of death or an evil as a good.
For many years faithful Catholics have watched their shepherds neglect their duty as leaders. Then the faithful started to cry out for true faithful leadership and the response was always, “Oh that particular teaching requires nuanced language because it is very complex.” = Translation = Uh Oh…They are trying to pull a fast one and they think that they are fooling the faithful but they are not. Shading the full truth with nuanced language such as “gifts and qualities” shows the culpability of those who are trying to deceive. Cecile Richards is only emulating those wolves in sheep’s clothing at the Synod who were also using nuanced language to hide the culture of death.
Taken from Rorate Caeli
Bishop. Athanasius Schneider on the Synod, “manipulation”, and the “neo-pagan” and heterodox midterm relatio – Midterm relatio a stain on the honor of the Apostolic See
Your Excellency, what is Your Excellency’s opinion about the Synod? What is its message to families?
November 4/5, 2014
“The Church and the world do urgently need intrepid and candid witnesses of the whole truth of the commandment and of the will of God, of the whole truth of Christ’s words on marriage. Modern clerical Pharisees and Scribes, those bishops and cardinals who throw grains of incense to the neo-pagan idols of gender ideology and concubinage, will not convince anyone to either believe in Christ or to be ready to offer their lives for Christ – said + Athanasius Schneider Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan in interview with Izabella Parowicz.”
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/11/bp-athanasius-schneider-on-synod.html
Taken from Lifesite News
Thank Cardinal Burke for his Vatican service (petition)
“Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the strongest pro-life and pro-family voices in the Catholic Church, has confirmed that the rumors are true: he will soon be moved from his position as the prefect of the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura.
For the past 6 years, Cardinal Burke has served in this role, heading up the highest court of the Catholic Church. He is now reportedly to be moved to the largely ceremonial position of patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Among Cardinal Burke’s many actions in defense of the truths of life and family has been his courageous stance in support of canon 915, which states that ministers of communion “must” refuse the Eucharist to public and “obstinate” sinners. The cardinal himself has most frequently advocated the use of this canon in the cases of pro-abortion Catholic politicians.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/petitions/thank-you-cardinal-burke-for-your-vatican-service
Why don’t they do a poll with actual pictures of aborted babies. Then let’s see what people want to call it. Let’s then see how it can be made to look normal and therapeutic for the mother who is just not ready or willing to give birth.
Just how long, can selfish liberals LIE about sex outside marriage, the lawless, “phony Utopia-pleasure” of the sinful and irresponsible Birth Control Pill– and the MURDER OF UNBORN CHILDREN IN THEIR MOTHER’S WOMBS?? HOW LONG?? It made me SICK to see a bunch of selfish, spoiled, too-wealthy, undeservingly college-educated American youth, tear up the Nation like tinkertoys, and turn themselves into a bunch of immoral, lawless, wild “hippies,” in the mid-1960’s! Then to LIE, LIE, LIE, about respect for God, your parents, and Christian Morality, saying that “nothing matters,” and “there is no tomorrow,” because they are all now hopeless addicts of deadly dope, rock “music,” and sex outside marriage! And hooked like dead kids, on whatever the GREEDY Rock “Music” salesman sells them! In the mid-1960’s, I also recall a family vacation in Mexico, where it just tears your heart out, to see the very rich– and the very poor, suffering beyond hope! And the very poor, many of them good Catholic people– have NEVER carried picket signs, demanding their “rights!”
American young people turn themselves into “hippies,” in the mid-1960’s! And I could not believe the Roe vs. Wade decision, in 1973! But– are they all going to be lawless, selfish criminals– even until they are all 80 years old?? When do “party animals” stop partying??
Sorry– but my computer jumped on me– and I hope you will remove the last paragraph, in my above post, beginning with “American young people…” !! Thanks! Anyway– so, I will say it again! When will the young, “hippie” American liberals stop their “party animal” partying, and grow up?? They passed the unbelievably evil and lawless Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, in 1973! So– by the time American liberals are all 80 years old— will they all STILL be lawless, immature, wild, immoral “party animals??”
Since the radical left just loves to quote Pope Francis, I suggest they go to the “Asian News. it” website and read the article about his sermon “Pope warns against sliding down the path that leads to being Christians in name but pagan in nature”. Quite an eye opener as to what the Holy Father actually says that some love to overlook. One should be able to find it on other sites also, just by googling it.