A8 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022
Emily’s List, which backs candi-
dates favoring abortion rights,
urged Democratic politicians to
use the word.
Those abortion rights groups
only recently shifted their rheto-
ric, moving away from a discus-
sion of giving women the “choice”
to a full embrace of the word
“abortion,” pushed by women of
color-led advocacy groups that
have championed the more direct
language.
While many Democrats have
become more comfortable talk-
ing about abortion, the word has
remained a sticking point for
many, especially in competitive
districts. The decision to lean on
other words is strategic, said
Celinda Lake, one of Biden’s lead
pollsters in 2020: To build the
broadest possible abortion rights
coalition, supporters of abortion
rights need to emphasize what
unites voters on the issue — “free-
dom” over control, “personal de-
cisions” over limitations.
“Most of these politicians have
realized, particularly in more
marginal districts, that you
should talk much more about the
shared value than the medical
procedure,” Lake said.
Voters, she said, generally are
more receptive to statements like
“We’re going to protect reproduc-
tive health care, including abor-
tion” than they would be to the
word in isolation. That distinc-
tion is the key to Democratic
success on the issue, Lake said.
“If we want to continue grow-
ing support in this country for
Roe v. Wade, we need a bigger
conversation,” she said.
Approximately 60 percent of
Americans say they want abor-
tion to remain legal in all or most
cases. By talking about abortion
in these terms, Lake said, Demo-
crats can generate “up to 69 or 70
percent support.”
The vast majority of abortion
rights groups say that’s the wrong
strategy. To protect the right to
ABORTION FROM A
Liberals on
far left want
use of word
‘abortion’
abortion, they say, Democrats
need to unapologetically embrace
abortion, a process that starts
with saying the word and contin-
ues by talking about the pro-
cedure as a positive, said Renee
Bracey Sherman, founder and ex-
ecutive director of We Testify,
who created an online tracker
titled “Did Biden Say Abortion
Yet?” (So far, Biden has included
the word in three public state-
ments and one tweet but has not
said the word in public as presi-
dent, according to a review of his
comments.)
“We cannot afford to have a
pro-choice president who is
afraid to say the word abortion ...
Stigmatizing abortion is not
presidential,” Bracey Shermanwrote in a statement after Biden
did not use the word in his State
of the Union address as he called
for the protection of reproductive
rights.
Mini Timmaraju, the president
of NARAL, Alexis McGill John-
son, the president of Planned
Parenthood, and Laphonza But-
ler, the president of Emily’s List,
all reject the idea that the word
“abortion” could alienate more
moderate voters.
“Voters want to know where
their lawmakers stand and elect-
ed officials who support abortion
access would be wise to make
their commitment crystal-clear,”
Timmaraju said. “Using euphe-
misms can fuel stigma and being
direct about support for abortionrights is not only the right thing
to do, but also politically advanta-
geous.”
McGill Johnson echoed the
sentiment. “Voters expect candi-
dates to say what they mean,
without unnecessary vagueness,”
she said.
Politicians are imagining the
word “abortion” to be more alien-
ating than it actually is, abortion
rights advocates say. While other
terms might poll better with mod-
erate voters, pollsters agree that
the word itself isn’t as alienating
as it once was.
Tresa Undem, a pollster who
has led hundreds of focus groups
on abortion, said she has noticed
that abortion has become far less
stigmatized in recent years. Tenyears ago, she said, the room
would get silent as soon as some-
one started talking about their
own abortion. “The air would get
sucked out of the room,” she said.
But now, she added, people are far
more likely to casually mention
their abortion experiences.
“Now it’s just like, ‘When I had
my abortion, blah, blah, blah.’ ”
Members of the Biden admin-
istration shrugged off the presi-
dent’s apparent reluctance to say
“abortion.” Asked about it during
a news conference in December,
White House press secretary Jen
Psaki said people should focus on
“what the president does in his
actions and what he fights for,”
alluding to Biden’s efforts to pro-
tect abortion rights, including hisadministration’s decision to sue
Texas for its six-week abortion
ban, and to throw his support
behind the Women’s Health Pro-
tection Act, the bill to codify Roe
v. Wade t hat was blocked by the
Senate in February.
Biden, who is Catholic, said in a
2012 vice-presidential debate that
he personally believes life begins
at conception; over the course of
his 49 years in national politics, he
has moved significantly to the left
on the issue. In 2019, he came out
against the Hyde Amendment,
which prevents federal funds from
being used for abortions, after he
came under pressure from abor-
tion rights advocates and other
presidential candidates.
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGEJABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
Antiabortion and abortion rights advocates rally outside the Supreme Court in D.C. as justices begin h earing arguments on Texas’s abortion law on Nov. 1.WE BRING THE
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