The New Abortion Debate

Nancy Cohen at the L.A. Times says the traditional terms “pro-choice” and “pro-life” are too simplistic to have a constructive debate over abortion; she calls for more nuanced language. Cohen criticizes the anti-abortion camp for framing itself as “pro-life”, a term she believes people naturally lean toward because it sounds nice. “Who, after all, could be against life? Between life and choice, life should win every time,” she says. “Perhaps “pro-choice” was once good enough shorthand for liberty, human dignity, individualism, pluralism, self-government and women’s equality. But anyone who thinks it is still sufficient, as we enter our fifth decade of the culture wars, hasn’t been paying attention.”