On Tuesday night, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Cecile Richards
addressed the Democratic National Convention in a speech that CSPAN was the only cable network to air in full.
Richards was also the first speaker at the convention to use the word “abortion” on stage. It might seem strange that Democrats, most of whom are pro-choice and willing to speak out against things like Planned Parenthood funding cuts, are often so reluctant to actually use the word “abortion.”
But it’s very common for Democrats and other pro-choice advocates to instead use euphemisms like “a woman’s right to choose.” There’s also a tendency to implicitly apologize for abortion by emphasizing that federal funds for Planned Parenthood don’t go toward abortion, or to focus only [on] how great the organization's contraception and sexual health services are.
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In recent years especially, pro-choice advocates have pushed to fight the stigma against abortion in order to protect it as a fundamental right. They say that about one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, and many people don’t realize that abortion is a safe, routine medical procedure.
Abortion should be treated like the normal medical care it is, advocates say, not separated out and turned into a political football. And they say that saying the word “abortion” like it’s a normal thing is one way to break the stigma and accomplish that goal.
