Every week viewers call our toll-free hotline to offer their feedback and ask questions about our coverage. We look for themes in those calls and take them as an opportunity to have a conversation with you.
Lately, we've been hearing questions about some of the phrases we use surrounding abortion, like this anonymous caller who said, "This is in regard to your person who is talking about abortion, calling it reproductive rights. Abortion is not reproductive rights. Reproductive rights means you don't get pregnant. Once you get pregnant, you're already past the rights."
Mike, from Arizona, had a similar view.
"Abortion, whatever you want to call it, is not reproducing, therefore does not fit into reproducing or reproductive rights. So, therefore, why do you call it reproductive rights? It's the right to end the option to reproduce, so it should be called non-reproductive rights," said Mike.
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Typically, when discussing abortion, we aim to call it just that: abortion. But the term "reproductive rights" is more widely encompassing of other services and procedures that are also in the news of late.
The term can be traced as far back as the women's rights and grassroots movements of the 1960s, and was brought to the international stage at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in 1994.
That conference's Programme of Action helped establish "reproductive rights" as a term encompassing a variety of reproductive health goals in hopes of combating infant and maternal mortality, increasing education for girls and access to family planning. The conference recognized the need for safe abortions, where they were legal. Participating countries took the stance that abortion shouldn't be used as family planning, but pointed to the connection between unsafe abortions and maternal deaths.
Today, medical groups like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also use "reproductive rights" as an umbrella term for the right to access reproductive health services like IVF, contraceptives and abortion.
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Here at Scripps News, we define "reproductive rights" as, simply, rights involving the reproductive system. Some of our viewers believe there should be limits on those rights, while others disagree. Our role is not to advocate, but to bring you the facts and information to form your own opinions.
That's why we also avoid certain phrases when it comes to abortion.
For instance, we steer clear of terms like pro-life or pro-choice, as the accuracy of those labels has been debated by people on both sides of the issue for years.
Instead, we opt for factual, unbiased descriptions of the person's position, with phrases like "supporters of abortion rights" or "opponents of abortion."
We recognize the power of words and are constantly updating and reevaluating certain terms, taking a deeper look based on input from experts, historical context or feedback from the groups impacted most by the issue.
If you have a comment about the words we use in our reporting or anything else, give us a call via the toll-free Scripps News Viewer Hotline at 1-833-4-SCRIPPS.
