Common terminology

The writer(s) of your recent editorial “Life finds a way” took issue with some of the common terminology that is associated with Planned Parenthood’s mission as it pertains to abortion and birth control. You used “verbicide” and “euphemisms” to refer to words and phrases such as abortion provider, abortion care, family planning, choice, barriers to care, medication, abortionist, and procedure. You also stated the term “‘abortion’ doesn’t explain what’s really happening.”

Your preferred words to describe a legal medical operation or the legal dispensing of prescription medication include culture of death, young people in the womb, killing, bleeding, and botched. Your “choice” of words is certainly not sanitized as you accuse these “euphemisms” of being. The definition of euphemism is “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant.”

I think that you insult your readers by intimating that they are unsure of what is happening when a woman makes a personal decision to have an abortion. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists uses the exact same vocabulary on its professional website and in its medical practices.

As journalists, it behooves you to recognize and use clear and accurate language, but as editorialists, I guess you can divert the reader’s attention as you see fit. Oh, and just in case you needed a reminder, the suffix “-ist” refers to one who performs a certain action.

SARAH B. THOMPSON

Fayetteville