In the Lewis Carroll classic Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, we find the following exchange between Humpty Dumpty and Alice:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
This conversation came to mind when I read a recent headline stating that West Virginia governor Jim Justice had signed into law a pro-life bill taking another step to stop abortions and protect preborn children from abortion. There was a silent celebration in my brain over this news since, as we all know, babies with special needs are targeted for abortion at a rate higher than other babies. But the party was premature.
The legislation actually does not ban killing babies. Rather, the law contains lethal language. The law permits the doctor to exercise “reasonable medical judgment” when treating the expectant mother, saying specifically that “severe fetal condition(s)” fall under that category where abortions are protected by law.
In other words, the doctor’s decision to abort a baby in such circumstances is allowed. The West Virginia law is not really a ban at all; it is another in the long line of flawed, exception-ridden laws that have approved some abortion, even though they are called bans.
Just like Humpty Dumpty, the abortion cartel uses words that mean what they want them to mean, and yet often we pro-lifers adopt those words, which is how the recent alleged ban came to be in a headline. While not a ban, anyone reading the article would think that it is.
Why this happens should not really shock anyone. Words have been redefined before. I can think of two right off the bat.
“Contraception” means any chemical or devices that act against the preborn child (against conception). It is not only against getting pregnant, but it is used to define many chemicals that kill the baby once his life has begun. If the baby cannot successfully implant in the wall of his mother’s womb, that baby will die. The pill makes that implantation nearly impossible.
Even so, it is called contraception.
“Abortion” is rarely described as an act that kills a developing baby, and it is rarely stated that the surgery can be done—according to the law—any time during the pregnancy, including just prior to birth.
By the same token, the word ban becomes meaningless if one takes the time to uncover all the exceptions that permit the killing to continue.
Such verbal trickery would make Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty proud. Like him, the worldview that supports aborting children will never accept the truth. But all anyone need do is review basic human embryology. There is no doubt when a baby’s life begins. There is no doubt that every abortion kills a person.
The nation’s lawmakers have tried to ban lethal drugs, but they have failed to ban killing our progeny—an act that is indeed “murder most foul.”