Reply #30: No! It was an AAPI victory. [View All]

[Eileen]

The Radical Right won a great victory last week, as a result of concentrating most of their efforts for years on THE WEAKEST point of the Pro-Choice position, "late term abortion". (We may well be right even on this issue, but it's the one which we have the most trouble explaining and/or defending.)

Your analysis is totally incorrect and actually demonstrates the point that the 'victory' gained was not so much a victory of the RRR (Radical Religious Reich) but a victory for the Anti Abortion Propaganda Industry (AAPI). The fact that you still believe the propaganda slogan for a phantom procedure "PBA" refers to some actual "late term abortion" procedure and actually equate them in the sentence quoted shows that you yourself have been caught by the AAPI and have adopted their vocabulary. The weakness in the Choice Supporter camp was the failure to counter the term "PBA" effectively and to permit the term to enter the vernacular - not only of the media but also consequently of the general public.

It is my contention that if a counter term had been adopted right from the start, when Choice Supporters recognized that the term was supposed to refer both to a procedure and when the procedure was performed, then the term "PBA" would have led to the derision it fully deserved. My suggestion for some years has been to use "Phantom Procedure" instead of the so called 'PBA' term and a number of supreme courts, includingg the USSC have agreed that 'PBA' has no real definition, therefore "PHANTOM PROCEDURE" accurately describes the term.

I would contend that rather than "late term abortion" being a weak point in the choice platform it is probably the strongest point in that it is extremely difficult to dismiss the choice of abortion where fetal anomaly is so severe that death very shortly after delivery is a certainty; or where a woman is heading for death from a coronary condition precluding surgery that will continue to become more certainly fatal if the pregnancy progresses any further.

You really need to understand what Bill S3 does NOT ban and also what it COULD ban because perhaps then you will understand that the AAPI actually were simply lobbing another volley this week in an eleven year war of words. That information is http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=669272"> - here - in a previous post or http://eileen.undonet.com/Main/PBAinfo/WhatIsS3.html"> - on my web page -

- Eileen`s always in process page -


Eileen

Edited to correct typos.