Abortion proponents say term “pro-choice” no longer useful

An article in yesterday's NY Times

“ ‘Choice’ has been extraordinarily successful as a frame for the abortion-rights side because a lot of Americans may not like the idea of abortion but they definitely agree with the idea of choice,” said Suzanne Staggenborg, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who researches social movements.

But by 2010 some abortion-rights activists began to sense in their outreach to young women, whose support was needed not only for the midterm elections but for the movement’s future as well, that the term pro-choice was virtually meaningless. That was confirmed by postelection polls and focus groups that women’s organizations and Democrats commissioned to understand what went wrong.

Among the findings, according to several people familiar with them: Many young women, when asked whether they were pro-choice or pro-life, said pro-life. Yet they supported the Roe ruling. Explaining the contradiction, Ms. Laguens said these self-described pro-life voters were “talking about their personal decision-making, for themselves, and not about what they want to push on others.”

But such results also showed the weakness of the pro-choice label, advocates and pollsters said. Planned Parenthood took the lead, conducting research on public attitudes throughout 2011 and then presenting the findings to allies in various meetings.

“It definitely was a bit destabilizing when we started,” Ms. Laguens said. When Planned Parenthood produced a YouTube video last year for supporters on the shift to a broader message, one member wrote online: “I’m pro-choice and I won’t be bullied into saying anything different. This is nothing but a retreat and a shame!”

It's a good article on the subject (to quote the late Msgr. Smith of the NY Archdiocese "Verbal engineering alwyas precedes social engineering") – more if you hit the link.