''Pro-choice'' and ''pro-life'' are terms of self-identification used by the two sides of the abortion debate: those who seek to increase access to abortion, and those who seek to restrict it, respectively. They are generally considered

loaded language Loaded language (also known as loaded terms, emotive language, high-inference language and language-persuasive techniques) is rhetoric used to influence an audience by using words and phrases with strong connotations. This type of language is ver ...

, since they frame the corresponding position in terms of inherently positive qualities (and thus position their opponents as "anti-choice" or "anti-life"). For this reason, more neutral or descriptive alternatives are sometimes preferred, for example by describing groups or individuals as supporters or opponents of abortion or abortion rights. The term '' pro-life'' began to be used by opponents of legal abortion around the early 1970s, born from the related term "

right to life The right to life is the belief that a being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity. The concept of a right to life arises in debates on issues including capital punishment, with some people seeing it as ...

". The term '' pro-choice'' (or "right to choose") was coined in response by abortion rights advocates shortly after.

Origins

''Pro-life''

The earliest use of the term ''pro-life'' cited by the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'' is in the 1960 book '' Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing'' by educator

A. S. Neill Alexander Sutherland Neill (17 October 1883 – 23 September 1973) was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Raised in Scotland, Neill ...

, though Neill uses it in a more general sense not specific to abortion: The earliest citation for an abortion-specific sense of the term is a 1971 reference in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' to "pro-life, anti-abortion educational programs". The adjective ''pro-life'' seems to derive from earlier constructions involving the word ''life'' used by opponents of legal abortion, particularly the phrase "

". For example, anti-abortion organizations founded in the late 1960s included the Right to Life League and

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) is the oldest and largest anti-abortion organization in Minnesota. Founded in 1968 to resist the legalization of abortion, MCCL works through education, legislation and political action to oppose abortio ...

. However, in early usage, prior to the 1973 Supreme Court case ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and st ...

'', the "pro-life" or "right to life" position was more commonly conceived as also encompassing progressive views such as opposition to war, the death penalty, or euthanasia. New York Times language columnist

William Safire William Lewis Safire (; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009Safire, William (1986). ''Take My Word for It: More on Language.'' Times Books. . p. 185.) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He w ...

credits Nellie Gray with popularizing ''pro-life'' as a shortened form of the "right to life" slogan. Gray founded the annual

March for Life March for Life may refer to: * March for Life (Washington, D.C.), an annual anti-abortion gathering held in Washington, D.C. * March for Life (Paris), an annual demonstration held in Paris protesting abortion * March for Life (Prague), an annual ...

in Washington in 1974.

''Pro-choice''

The term ''pro-choice'' entered currency after ''pro-life'', and was coined by those who supported legal abortion as a response to the success of the ''pro-life'' branding. The first use of the term cited by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is in a 1969 issue of the California daily newspaper the '' Oxnard Press-Courier'', which referred to "Pro-choice and anti-abortion activists... headed to the Women's Clinic." Authors

Linda Greenhouse Linda Joyce Greenhouse (born January 9, 1947) is an American legal journalist who is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who covered ...

and Reva B. Siegel identify a 1972 memo by Jimmye Kimmey, executive director of the

Association for the Study of Abortion The Association for the Study of Abortion (ASA) was an American organization founded around 1965 dedicated to the study of abortion and advocacy for the liberalization of abortion law. Its founding members included the obstetrician-gynecologists A ...

, as the genesis of the subsequent widespread adoption of the ''pro-choice'' label. In the memo, Kimmey identifies "the need to find a phrase to counter the Right to Life slogan", and suggests "Freedom of Conscience" and "Right to Choose" as possibilities, with a preference for the latter because of its brevity and focus on action rather than the "internal matter" of conscience. William Safire suggests the slogan may have drawn influence from the use of " Freedom of Choice" as an anti-

integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

slogan in the previous decade. In the years before ''pro-choice'' became widely adopted, the qualifier ''pro-abortion'' was commonly used by those advocating for legal abortion. For example, a representative of

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

referred to "pro-abortion" legislation in a 1975 statement to ''The Wall Street Journal''. Since abortion was legalized in the United States, the term has fallen out of fashion, seen as distracting or inaccurate because many people support legal access to abortion without arguing that it is the right choice.

Criticism and analysis

Those who identify as pro-choice generally reject the framing of the term ''pro-life'' and vice-versa. The terms are commonly interpreted as derogating the other side of the debate by implying that they are either "anti-choice" or "anti-life" (or "pro-death"). The decision to brand the movements in positive rather than negative terms has been compared to the earlier use of the phrase "right to work" instead of "anti-union".

announced in 2013 that it would no longer use the label ''pro-choice''. The organization suggested that the word ''choice'' might have an undesirably "frivolous" connotation, and that polling suggested that the binary labels ''pro-choice'' and ''pro-life'' failed to capture the nuanced views of Americans toward abortion. For example, one poll sponsored by the organization showed that 35% of voters who identified as pro-life did not believe ''Roe v. Wade'' should be overturned. Another survey found that 12% of respondents identified with both the labels ''pro-choice'' and ''pro-life'' simultaneously. Planned Parenthood deliberately declined to propose a replacement term.

Expanded definitions

On one

Mothers' Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the ...

, US pastor-turned-senator

Raphael Gamaliel Warnock Raphael Gamaliel Warnock ( ; born July 23, 1969) is an American Baptist pastor and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Georgia since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he assumed office on January 20, 2021. Since 20 ...

argued that being 'anti-abortion' and being 'pro-life' are not synonymous. An article in the '' National Catholic Reporter'' has asserted that climate change is the "No. 1 pro-life issue" facing the Catholic Church today.

Media usage

Many press style guides, including those used by NPR and the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

, advise against using the terms ''pro-choice'' and ''pro-life'', except when they occur in the name of an organization or in a quote. NPR's policy recommends alternative constructions such as "abortion rights supporters" and "abortion rights opponents". It permits the qualifier "anti-abortion", but not "pro-abortion rights". The style guide of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' recommends the terms "anti-abortion" (rather than "pro-life") and "pro-choice" (rather than "pro-abortion").

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=https://qz.com/896566/where-does-the-term-pro-life-come-from/, work=Quartz, title=A brief history of a marketing masterpiece: branding the anti-abortion movement "pro-life", last=Merelli, first=Annalisa, date=28 January 2017 {{cite OED, pro-life, access-date=16 March 2022 {{cite OED, pro-choice, access-date=16 March 2022 {{cite web, url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/us/fetal-heartbeat-forced-pregnancy.html, title='Fetal Heartbeat' vs. 'Forced Pregnancy': The Language Wars of the Abortion Debate, last=Harmon, first=Amy, date=22 May 2019, work=New York Times {{cite web, url=https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2010/03/24/114585422/npr-changes-abortion-language , last=Shepard, first=Alicia C., date=24 March 2010, title=NPR Changes Abortion Language , department=NPR Public Editor , publisher=NPR {{cite book, title=Before Roe V. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling, url=https://documents.law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/beforeroe2nded_1.pdf, last1=Greenhouse, first1=Linda, last2=Siegel, first2=Reva, publisher=Yale Law School, date=2012, edition=2nd, isbn=9780615648217 {{cite journal, url=https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/the-end-of-pro-choice-will-no-labels-really-help-the-abortion-debate/267393/, journal=The Atlantic, last=Rothman, first=Lily, date=23 January 2013, title=The End of Pro-Choice: Will 'No Labels' Really Help the Abortion Debate? {{cite web, url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/07/abortion-the-guardian-style-guide, title=Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses to describe abortion bans, last=Glenza, first=Jessica, website=

TheGuardian.com TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and ''Guardian Unlimited'', is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'', ...

, date=7 June 2019 {{cite web, url=https://www.bustle.com/articles/34045-pro-choice-or-pro-abortion-the-overhaul-of-reproductive-rights-terminology-matters, last=Barbato, first=Lauren, date=31 July 2014, title=Should We Say "Pro-Choice" Or "Pro-Abortion?", work=Bustle {{cite web, url=https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2019/05/29/728069483/reviewing-nprs-language-for-covering-abortion, last=Jensen, first=Elizabeth, date=29 May 2019, title=Reviewing NPR's Language For Covering Abortion , department=NPR Public Editor , publisher=NPR {{cite web, url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/planned-parenthood-moving-away-from-choice, last=North, first=Anna, date=9 January 2013, work=BuzzFeed, title=Planned Parenthood Moving Away From "Choice" {{cite news, work=The New York Times, last=Safire, first=William, date=18 March 1979, title=ASAP's Fables, url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/18/archives/on-language-asaps-fables-superflack-all-pro-white-houseese.html Abortion debate English phrases