Recent changes to the Associated Press Stylebook instruct journalists not to use abortion terms that could be construed as supporting pro-life views. Instead, it suggests using language that aligns with abortion advocates, the Post Millennial reported.
The AP Stylebook provides fundamental spelling, grammar, punctuation, and phrasing guidelines commonly followed by a wide range of news organizations. Although, in recent history, it has repeatedly backed the leftist pursuit of waging a politicized war on words.
The latest style guide update suggested doing away with the modifiers “pro-life, pro-choice or pro-abortion.” Instead, journalists are recommended to replace those terms with “anti-abortion or abortion-rights.”
“Use the modifiers anti-abortion or abortion-rights; don’t use pro-life, pro-choice or pro-abortion unless they are in quotes or proper names. Avoid abortionist, which connotes a person who performs clandestine abortions,” the stylebook stated.
The term “pro-choice,” which was arguably already a stretch when describing abortion supporters, is now replaced with an even more radical and misleading term, “abortion-rights.” The phrase assumes that all journalists, news organizations, and readers believe abortion is a woman’s health care right.
Meanwhile, the phrase “anti-abortion” undermines pro-life advocates’ message that an abortion ends a human life.
Among other controversial changes, the Associated Pressed also instructed writers to stop using the term “late-term abortion.” The AP posted the update to Twitter and claimed the reason for abolishing the phrase is because the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defines “late-term” as after 41 weeks’ gestation and “abortion does not happen in this period.”
Despite the AP’s assumed certainty that most Americans support abortion access, a June survey revealed that approximately half of Americans were satisfied with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Post Millennial reported.
Earlier this year, the AP was relentlessly mocked after it updated the stylebook to include the phrases “pregnant people” and “people who seek an abortion” to be inclusive of the transgender and non-binary community.
In the aftermath of the 2020 summer of destruction protests, the AP once again tried to politicize speech. Its stylebook asked writers to consider using the milder term “unrest” instead of “riot.”
The AP released the newest version of its guide last week, and it remains the most common stylebook used by journalists and news organizations regardless of political leanings. However, it is unlikely that conservative outlets will honor all of the book’s recent updates. In contrast, it is likely that the left-leaning corporate media outlets will fully embrace the AP’s new woke suggestions.