Irish Times Bans Use of Term 'Pro-Life', Keeps 'Pro-Choice'

The Irish Times newspaper has issued an editorial saying that it will no longer use the term “pro-life” to describe people fighting the country’s legalisation of abortion. The paper described it as a ‘loaded’ term, not fit for a news description.

The editorial, titled “Right to be Wrong” compared the term to various pejoratives: “[the] blurring of opponents’ ideologies to associate their ideas with extremism is a feature of many debates. The shorthand terms ‘racist,’ ‘xenophobic,’ ‘homophobic,’ ‘sexist,’ ‘anti-life,’ ‘fascist’ and ‘communist’ are bandied around all too easily in a way that dilutes their currency, often to the point of meaninglessness.”

“Such imprecise and inaccurate labelling and ad hominem reasoning is, it has to be said, often deeply counterproductive to an argument to hear the claim that Obama is a communist may delight supporters of Fox News but will do little for its credibility in Middle America, no matter how often repeated.”

But, speaking to the LifeSiteNews website, Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute, said that the paper regularly uses the term “pro-choice” to describe people who campaign to legalise abortion. This term, says Uí Bhriain, “is clearly a euphemism imagined by slick marketers of the abortion lobby to conceal the real horror of abortion.”

“Pro-abortion” would be a more objective term, she said, but “they know it’s a term that most people don’t want to associate with abortion, so the Irish Times are collaborating in a universal deceit which deliberately masks the reality of abortion.”

“Its reporting on abortion has always skewed in favour of abortion; anything that portrays abortion in a negative light is largely ignored, and it devotes considerable time and energy to making false or empty charges against pro-life groups.”

The Irish Times is well known for its pro-abortion stance. It was recently forced to backtrack after reporting that pro-life groups were telling children that rape victims don’t become pregnant, admitting that no pro-life group had actually made the claim.