Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier observes in a blog entry titled “Tiptoeing Around Abortion,” “As an appeals court judge, she dismissed a challenge to the so-called global gag rule, deciding against an abortion rights group. But in her opinion she used the phrases ‘anti-abortion’ and ‘pro-choice,’ typically used by the abortion rights side.”
There is a certain irony in the AP bureau chief’s noting that the phrases “anti-abortion” and “pro-choice” are “typically used by the abortion rights side.” Those are also the phrases mandated by the Associated Press. In essence, Fournier is confirming his employer’s own “abortion-rights” bias.
Fournier also records some of Sotomayor’s comments to the Judiciary Committee today that favor the Supreme Court’s placing abortion under the “right to privacy”:
Sotomayor says the right to abortion is “settled law.”
She told the Judiciary Committee that “there is a right of privacy. The court has found it in various places in the Constitution.”
The nominee said this right is stated in the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure and in the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection of the law.
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I had a writing job once with a publishing company. We had an in-house style manual which spelled out terms clearly (i.e. the correct term is “country-and-western,” not “country-western”). One entry was “pro-life (do not use).” It didn’t explain why.
I used it anyway in my articles, and my liberal editors didn’t correct it.
Here’s a HILARIOUS example of how a copy editor at the LA Times took its pro-life/anti-abortion labelling a bit too far:
http://www.themediareport.com/jul2004/antiabortionopera.htm