Here’s something sure to be familiar for many in the pro-life movement. Since I began my pro-life activism, I’ve often been chided by family members and friends for using the term pro-abortion. “No one is really ‘pro-abortion,’” they argue, “that’s why we call ourselves ‘pro-choice.’” This has never seen like much of an argument, rather, it comes across as a refusal to acknowledge the truth out of fear.  

And it also begs the question, “What do they mean by pro-choice?”

Just a couple of weeks before today’s fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood – the standard bearer in Big Abortion – announced a change in public relations strategy.

Their new tactic? Don’t say “choice.” Abortion is a complicated issue, says Planned Parenthood. When it is boiled down, people simply don’t fit into the categories of “pro-life” or “pro-choice.”

That’s an interesting idea, and in perusing Planned Parenthood’s facebook page immediately after this revelation, there were many mixed reactions.

Some – and it seemed to be those most uncomfortable with the idea of having an abortion themselves – agreed with the new messaging, but there were also many posts along these lines:

“I’m proud to be radically pro-choice. Abortion on-demand, any time up to delivery for any reason she chooses, 100% legal and 100% publically funded…”

Though I’ve always acknowledged the accuracy of the term “pro-abortion,” the violent nature of this assertion startled me. I’m grateful it did. I never want to become desensitized to the fact that yes, some people really are pro-abortion.

And by some, I don’t just mean one random supporter of Planned Parenthood. Taxpayer funded abortion on-demand, at anytime, up until the moment of birth is the radical position shared by the pro-abortion lobby, President Obama, and even the Democratic Party – which once operated under the premise that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare,” but has since dropped “rare” in pressing for unregulated taxpayer-funded abortions for all.

The pro-abortion activists and groups mentioned above have staunchly refused to support:

• A ban on late term abortion past the point at which unborn children feel pain.

• The regulation and inspection of abortion facilities (in some states, nail salons and tattoo parlors are more heavily regulated than abortion clinics).

• “Right to know” legislation and other efforts to ensure that women understand the development of the child in their womb and the reality of abortion.

These pro-abortion advocates, who often describe themselves as “pro-woman,” refused even to support a ban on sex-selective abortions carried out purely because the unborn child is considered the “wrong” gender – usually a girl.

Lukewarm pro-choice advocates, take note. These pro-abortion advocates call themselves “pro-choice,” but this is what they stand for. This is what “pro-choice” stands for.

Are you a part of a movement so dedicated to every abortion that it would refuse to stand up against the injustice of sex-selection? Do you side with those so opposed to compromise on clinic regulations that they turned a blind eye to the atrocious conditions in the late-term abortion clinic of Kermit Gosnell?

There is an alternative – there is pro-life. By “pro-life,” we mean refusing to pit mother against child, refusing to accept the violence of abortion as a good through which women can be built up.

On the pro-life side, there is parenting, there is adoption, there are pregnancy resource centers waiting to welcome women and men struggling with open arms. On the pro-life side, there is truth and there is hope. And you are welcome.