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PBHA450H: The Language of the Abortion Debate

  • dehumanizing / humanizing language
  • human rights language
  • personalizing language
  • unborn / pre-born
  • “The Teenager Test”
    • Why do we talk about “the pre-born” when we wouldn't talk about “the teenager”? We'd say, “the rights of teenagers,” not “the rights of the teenager,” so shouldn't we say “the rights of pre-born children” rather than “the rights of the pre-born?”
      • Though we would talk about “the elderly”… but that's more of a collective now than an abstraction
    • If we wouldn't talk this way about “the teenager” or “the toddler”, then we shouldn't talk this way about pre-born children
  • comparisons with other movements and struggles of changing or redeeming language, successes/failures
    • gay/queer
    • bitch/slut
    • gratis/libre
    • global warming / climate change
    • FIXME must be plenty of other examples