Friday, August 31, 2012

America needs to fix its use of Abortion


I know I said I’d do a comparison of the presidential nominees and myself. With the crazy announcements of the Republican national convention, it’s safe to say that more surprised words will be spoken to change how Mitt is seen and his political stances. Same can go for the President. Next week, the Democrat’s will have their convention and who knows what will be said there, especially if they let Joe Biden talk.

So, I want to talk about something else, Abortion. I am not going to lecture on if it’s right or wrong, or my views on either side of the issue. I’m going to talk about the usage of the word, and how American’s have altered the term and how it is perceived.

Merriam-Webster defines Abortion as:
1: the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus
A: spontaneous expulsion of a human fetus during the first 12 weeks of gestation
B: induced expulsion of a human fetus
C: expulsion of a fetus of a domestic animal often due to infection at any time before completion of pregnancy
2: arrest of development of an organ so that it remains imperfect or is absorbed
3: the arrest of a disease in its earliest stage

Number 2 and 3 of that definition have no part of my arguments, but I left in for full disclosure of the definition. I will be focusing on the number 1 definition, as well as part A and B of the definition.

Our culture likes to use euphemisms to great lengths. For those unaware, a euphemism is creating a nicer sounding word to describe something that can be perceived as offensive. A common use is saying someone passed away than say someone died.

Abortion has been manipulated to a euphemism as well as a harsh thought. Because of media, American’s have grasped onto the notion that Abortions is when a woman electively chooses to kill her baby. This is only partially correct, as evidence by part B of the first definition.

A miscarriage is the unexpected loss of a fetus. There a numerous reasons as to why a fetus will stop growing, and unfortunately a woman will lose her child. Miscarriage is used by the media as an unfortunately and natural event, and so when it happens, no one screams murderer at the woman. If you got to part A of the first definition, you find the definition used for miscarriage.

The question then becomes, why have two words which are part of the same definition created or used when a miscarriage is an abortion. So anyone who says they are against abortions should realize that they are against miscarriages too. The issue comes from Media, and American’s using euphemism’s to give hope to some and create fear for others. In the use of politics, the term abortion has really exploded with its term as a bad issue.

I know at this point, there can be some people thinking, there is a clear reason for the separation of the terms. Miscarriage is the body’s natural reaction to a fetus that will not be able to carry to term. Where as reference to abortion are to the people who are careless unfeeling people who will willing kill a fetus that can be carried to term, a clear distinction. So then we can say if we want abortions to be legal or not, definition A versus definition B. Wrong.

In many cases, a miscarriage, as defined by part A of the definition, the fetus does not naturally pass from the female. If this does not happen, complications can arise for the female, the most dangerous, infection. If the female cannot pass the fetus naturally, the female would have to undergo a procedure to clear out the fetus. This is where an issue arises. If the procedure is needed, then you are entering part B of the definition. So if part A does not work, part B is required. Therefore, the bad abortion we are known to call it is required to treat a miscarriage.

So go back to the “clear” distinction of calling them separate names and then banning abortion and not miscarriage. If you ban abortions, you ban life saving procedures for a natural event that may not properly pass. Ultimately, a miscarriage is an abortion, just a type of abortion often referred too as a spontaneous abortion, still an abortion.

I really think the definition and distinction should be made aware to the public, and be used and clarified when people talk about such issues. When people say they are against abortions, usually heard on television, my eye twitch’s and I want to reach through the television and strangle the ignorance out of them.

It should be stated that someone is either for or against the elective abortion not due to a spontaneous abortion, or if sticking with the euphemistic language, miscarriage. But it won’t happen because we’re all happy with our simple ignorant terms.

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