Why Is It Never "Abortion Control"?

August 29th, 2005 12:04 PM

In Washington Post staff writer Ceci Connolly's below-the-fold piece, "Access to Abortion Pared at State Level," Ms. Connolly tagged abortion-regulating measures passed by state legislatures recently as "antiabortion measures" and the proponents of same as "antiabortion forces." Yet a search of Nexis by contrast reveals that efforts to regulate 2nd Amendment rights of American citizens are never tagged as "anti-gun" but rather as "gun control,"the term favored by liberals who advocate strictly regulating, if not banning, gun rights.

Connolly shouldn't necessarily be expected to use the terminology of pro-life advocacy groups, but certainly she, and her paper, could take a cue from their coverage of gun regulation. If efforts to restrict and abridge the Second Amendment by legislation are merely "gun control," then certainly efforts to regulate a right invented by the Supreme Court by legislation could, and should, be tagged "abortion control" or "abortion regulation."