The Associated Press is working to shape American opinions about abortion in its latest effort to change our language in the war to dominate the national culture. The AP Stylebook official Twitter account posted on Tuesday that the phrase “late-term abortion” is now forbidden by the news organization.
The AP Stylebook has been published since 1953. It is a uniform American English grammar style and usage guide for journalists working for or connected to the Associated Press. The AP’s stylebook has become widely accepted over the decades as the authoritative reference for news reporting and public-facing corporate communications.
The tweet reads:
Do not use the term late-term abortion. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defines “late term” as 41 weeks through 41 weeks and 6 days of gestation, and abortion does not happen in this period.
Instead, use the term abortion later in pregnancy if a general term is needed, but be aware that there are varying definitions of the time period involved.
ACOG is a pro-abortion group. As a supposedly unbiased news source you shouldn't rely on partisan groups to determine your terminology.
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) December 6, 2022
LifeNews responded to the AP tweet by noting that “ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) is a pro-abortion group.” It admonished the AP by saying that as “a supposedly unbiased news source you shouldn’t rely on partisan groups to determine your terminology.”
Of course, the AP is intentionally confusing the clinical term “late-term pregnancy” with “late-term abortion.” It provides the definition used by the ACOG for the former phrase as a replacement for the accurate but politically disfavored latter term.
“Late-term pregnancy” describes gestation in the ordinary course of child-bearing and delivery. “Late-term abortion” is the commonly used phrase that everyone understands to mean the intentional termination of a child’s life late in a mother’s pregnancy. In the usage that arose after the legal cases focused on viability, late-term abortions are understood to mean those occurring after around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The AP obviously wants to distance readers from the harsh realities surrounding grisly late-term abortion procedures.
Abortion has come to the forefront of the public debate this year in the battle for how Americans receive news and commentary from the corporate media. The abortion industry was bolstered last month as several states voted in the midterm election to enshrine abortion access in their laws following the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overrule Roe v. Wade. The court’s decision returned the power to regulate, permit or ban abortions to each state individually.
