Is "choice" the right word?
Lynn Harris over at Broadsheet started a great conversation about reproductive rights language. The comments section gets pretty interesting.
I've heard both sides of this argument, and they both have merit. Some feminist folks take the position that no one is pro-abortion, how could anyone be actively for something that's so hard, but it has to remain a safe, legal option; so they use the choice language. The hardcore folks, like Eleanor Smeal, say that refusing to talk about abortion is letting the anti-reproductive rights folks define the debate - a big strategic mistake; so they stick with abortion rights language.
Longtime Texas activist Peggy Romberg of Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas has a good way to put this, I think. She says that the pro-choice position is the moderate compromise - that one end of the spectrum is the anti-choicers who want to outlaw abortions, and the other end of the spectrum is people who would force women to have abortions. We're in the middle - abortion should be safe, legal, and accessible, and the decisions should be left up to individuals. This is accurate, and it's also a smart rhetorical move - when you've got China on one end and Randall Terry on the other, yep, we look quite sane and reasonable by comparison.