Dear fellow Pro-Lifers,
Please do not refer to support for elective abortion as a “genocide”. The word “genocide” has a specific meaning in international law: it refers to the attempt to destroy an ethnic, religious, or cultural identity. To be sure, genocidaires may use abortion as a means to destroy an ethnic, religious and/or cultural identity. But abortion itself is not genocide.
To put it bluntly, it is irresponsible to attempt to gain a rhetorical advantage in the abortion debate by improperly using (and abusing) the term “genocide”. Doing this merely casts heat rather than light, thereby distorting the nature of the debate and alienating your opponent. This, in turn, merely encourages them to return the favor with incendiary images of coat-hangers and back-alley abortions.
Needless to say, precisely none of this is helpful. So don’t, please don’t say abortion is genocide. It just isn’t.
