‘Freedom,’ ‘Baby’: Advocates Refine Abortion Messaging As 2024 Election Nears

The language around the abortion debate has been changing in recent months, with both pro-lifers and pro-choice advocates looking for new messaging with the terms “baby and “freedom,” respectively, ahead of the 2024 election, according to Axios.

Activists have turned to voters to push their respective agenda on the issue and polling has indicated that Americans are not resonating with the traditional labels of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Anat Shenker-Osorio, a consultant for Democratic groups and campaigns, said that the word “freedom” would be an “extraordinarily effective” update for the term “choice,” Axios reported, while Republicans have opted to use the term “baby” or “unborn child.”

Shenker-Osorio said using words like “freedom” to advocate for abortion rights means “you get to be a hero, you get to be part of this movement.”

NARAL Pro-Choice America (NARAL) changed its name in September to “Reproductive Freedom for All” in an effort to win over more moderates to their cause. The abortion organization said that the name would provide a “clearer more inclusive path forward.”

“The fight for abortion rights and access is at a critical moment,” Mini Timmaraju, the organization’s president, said. “With the coalition of Americans who support reproductive freedom growing by the day, our leadership identified a clearer and more inclusive path forward to mobilize this new and expanded base of support.”

Republicans have also been discussing potential changes for the pro-life movement and U.S. Senators held a closed-door meeting, also in September, to talk about concerns that the term “pro-life” was now seen as too extreme. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said that it’s a mistake to “assume” everyone understands the meaning of the term and that advocates and legislators needed to be more “specific” when they talk about the issue.

Abortion activists have been pushing for constitutional amendments in their states to enshrine abortion as a protected right and have been battling with pro-life advocates about the language of the legislation that will be presented to voters. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 19 that the term “unborn child” could remain in a proposed amendment despite protests from pro-choice activists, who argued that the language was deceiving.

Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody of Florida asked the state Supreme Court on Oct. 9 to request that the language of a proposed abortion amendment be changed since its current form would “mislead” voters. She noted that the amendment’s use of the term viability could be an issue since it had multiple definitions that meant different stages during the pregnancy.

“As any mother knows, ‘viability’ has two meanings when it comes to pregnancy,” Moody wrote in an article for Florida’s Voice. “When it comes to viability, even the pro-choice-aligned American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists notes the two medical definitions and urges that ‘[t]he concept of viability of [an unborn baby] is frequently misrepresented or misinterpreted based on ideological principles. This perpetuates incorrect and unscientific understandings of medical terms.’”