Please call it "pregnancy prevention" NOT birth control....

[msongs]

with all the baloney going on about abortion, Planned Parenthood, Mitt Romney etc I think it is a big mistake to use republican right wing framing when talking about these issues.

Pregnancy prevention is a more accurate descriptive term the pejorative term "birth control". It not about controlling births, it is about preventing unwanted pregnancies leading to unwanted births.

Re-framing this issue would be a great help.

Msongs

[MNBrewer]

1. Good idea

Birth Control is deciding whether to vaginal or c-section, and if c-section, on what day.

[hifiguy]

2. I don't ever remember it not being called

"birth control" and I was born when Ike was president.

[dipsydoodle]

5. ditto

same here in the UK - birth control. We've got quite enough no no expressions here on DU without adding yet another.

[silverweb]

3. I prefer "contraception."

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]And if some poor brainwashed soul doesn't know what that means, it's an opening to explain/discuss.

[David__77]

4. Why? It's less accurate.

Plan b is birth control but can certainly terminate pregnancy. Lets not be defensive. Planned parenthood is a good thing in whatever form.

[CTyankee]

14. No, it does not terminate pregnancy. It prevents the implantation of a fertilized ovum.

Medical science says that a pregnancy only starts once the ovum has implanted. Period. The end.

This "sacralization" of the fertilized ovum is an invention of religion, not of science. Medical scientists say that such ova are between 40 and 60% likely to simply be washed away from a woman's body with her next menstrual period.

[David__77]

23. OK, point taken. But neither should we "sacralize" the implanted embryo.

A baby's not a baby until it it is born; instead, it is a subservient part of the pregnant woman's physiology. The distinction between "Pregnancy" and "Not-Pregnancy" shouldn't be the crucial problem.

[CTyankee]

25. I absolutely agree! but the "moment" of pregnancy is still NOT at fertlization...

I just think that is an important distinction when it comes to Plan B.

We still have to make these distinctions. I do agree with you about what is a "baby" altho I think we can see that some accommodation is made under Roe v. Wade for a fully viable fetus...which is the norm, actually, certainly not the deviation.

[kestrel91316]

19. Biology FAIL. Plan B PREVENTS pregnancy by preventing implantation.

Pregnancy does not begin until the fertilized ovum implants.

It's the accepted medical definition of pregnancy.

[Atman]

6. Why?

Please stop giving in to silly ideas like this. What the hell is the difference? Your motivations would appear to be nothing more than thwarting the righties, but there is nothing wrong with the term "birth control." It means YOU are able to CONTROL whether or not you give BIRTH. Every time we give in the pressure of the right wing lunatics, we become less of ourselves and more of them. Fuck that.

.

[msongs]

13. just because YOU cannot understand the difference does not make you qualified to define my

motivations but thanks for the comment just the same nt

[Atman]

21. Whoa! Just because I "don't understand"...

...what's going on in YOUR head, that means I don't understand the larger issue? Really? Get a fucking grip.

[unblock]

7. the pills, i just call "hormones". more descriptive. and besides, they have a variety of uses.

not just for preventing pregnancy.

[mysuzuki2]

8. A rose by any other name, my dear!

[stevenleser]

9. I prefer German straightforwardness, like, die Anti-Baby Pille

and note, 'die' isn't the english 'die' it is one of the incarnations of the word 'the' in German.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

10. if it pisses of the religious right, I'll call them jagged little liberal abortion funpills

I get where you're coming from but seriously, the name fits, or fits well enough. There's no need to be apologetic to any rightwinger for taking a pill that keeps you from getting pregnant. I'd love to see them try to make a serious argument about the label "birth control". They'd be cut to ribbons.

[lapislzi]

11. It was always called "family planning" when I worked overseas

Years ago I helped in regional clinics in South Africa. Family planning made the women feel empowered that they were doing a positive thing FOR their families.

[Scuba]

12. Good luck with that.

[CTyankee]

15. I kinda like "abortion prevention" too, altho I doubt that will catch on...

[Obama3_16]

16. you mean like "homicide bomber"? no thianks. everyone knows what birth control is

and I don't think the typical 20 something guy out on the dating circuit has ANY PROBLEM calling it birth control as long as it does the job of keeping him from being a daddy. Same goes for the women out there living their lives.

I can't stand when we try bending our language toward political purposes like that.

[dembotoz]

17. lets keep birth control because people understand the term

and lets just tell folks that mitt romney and santorum should stay out of our bedrooms and we really want newt to stay out of our bedrooms

[kestrel91316]

18. I have been calling oral contraceptives the birth control pill for

35 years. No RW "framing" going on there.

[saras]

20. I frame it as "fetus removal"

If someone wants to have a whole bunch of intense emotions around the issue, that is THEIR CHOICE, and THEIR CHOICE ALONE.

The reason Europe is so much more sensible about it is NOT that they are passionately committed to a different approach, its that they acknowledge that passion leads to stupid politics.

The sane healthy world I'm aiming at treats it as a minor medical procedure, the private business of a woman and her doctor(s). No more. I want to see "abortion fanatics" in the same bucket as "birthers", "new Earthers", and "flat Earthers".

I am NOT, EVER going to give anyone the political message that THEIR emotions around abortion are ANY grounds for ME, or ANYONE ELSE I KNOW, to change their behavior in any way, any more than your friendly neighborhood plaster casting foot fetishist is going to convert everyone in the neighborhood, gay, straight, or other, into plaster casting foot fetishists.

It's the same position I've always held since I first learned about birth control, it was fairly mainstream when I developed it, and America has moved FAR to the right during my lifetime.

[barbtries]

22. it's always been birth control to me.

even when abortion was popular.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Phrase 'birth control' dates back to at least 1914

OED citation: "1914 The Woman Rebel June 39/2 (heading) The Birth Control League."
and that's Margaret Sanger:
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=420027.xml

and subsequently used by such republican right wingers as George Orwell.

Are you the first person in the world to call "birth control" a pejorative? Can you show us anyone else who thinks that?

[LeftishBrit]

26. I see nothing wrong with the term 'birth control'

In fact, to me, 'birth control' does not necessarily imply complete prevention of pregnancy; it may, but it also can imply planning your family, and spacing out pregnancies, so that you don't have to have a baby every year or so.

The phrase has been in use since at least the early 20th century.

[coffeenap]

28. Granted, it is not right-wing, but the term was originated in 1914.

Think about how many terms from that time are still in use in our modern medical parlance? Let's see, "unwell" for periods, "grippe" for the flu, "falling sickness" for epilepsy, "consumption" for tuberculosis. Maybe it really is time to update the term while at the same time meeting a need?