Some Terms Encountered in These Pages

The following definitions are what the author means by the various terms. Your mileage may vary.

Pro-Life:

Believing that abortion is a violation of the rights of the human fetus. Usually implies a belief that abortion should be illegal under most or all circumstances (although opinions vary as to whether those would be the laws in an ideal world or whether they should be enacted now). Members of this group generally believe that individual choice is an important value, but protecting the unborn human's life is an even more important one. This label is withheld from those who advocate violence as a means of ending abortion, on the grounds that their respect for life is obviously lacking.

Pro-Choice:

Believing that abortion is a right and should be legal under most or all circumstances. Some members of this group believe that the life of the unborn human being has no intrinsic value; others disagree, but believe that a woman's choice is the more important value. Occasionally referred to on these pages as abortion-choice or pro-abortion-choice in an effort to emphasize what is being chosen.

(Note that not everyone will fall neatly into one of these two categories.)

Anti-Choice:

A derogatory term for pro-lifers. This term is considered offensive for two reasons: 1) it assumes that choice is the only important value at stake in the abortion debate, and automatically casts anyone who disagrees with this assumption in a negative light; and 2) it implies that people who oppose abortion are generally opposed to women having choices in their lives, which is a popular but utterly false smear. The absurdity becomes obvious when one considers why we do not call people who are opposed to theft or assault "anti-choice".

Pro-Abortion:

A derogatory term for pro-choicers. There are some people who fit the description of pro-abortion: that is, they see abortion as a good solution to the problems of pregnancy and encourage its use, at least among certain groups of people. Supporters of China's forced-abortion policy could be considered pro-abortion, for example. However, in general most people who are pro-choice really do not consider abortion a good thing, and hence this term is offensive to them.

Consistent Life Ethic:

A philosophy which opposes the destruction of human life, whether directly by individuals or the state, or indirectly by social policies. See the Mission Statement of the Seamless Garment Network for an illustration. Some consistent life ethic proponents extend the philosophy still further, to include the protection of non-human animal life as well.

Liberal:

One who advocates balancing private and state power to maximize the freedom of each person to choose his/her own path in life.

A liberal typically opposes any regulation of personal behavior, such as religion or sexuality, as long as said behavior does not infringe upon non-consenting parties. Liberals also favor people having democratic input, sometimes in the form of government regulation, into economic and social decisions that affect their lives.

Sometimes libertarians refer to themselves as the real liberals, or "classical liberals" (though their claim is debatable). Libertarians oppose any governmental authority over either personal or economic activity, as long as no "force or fraud" (narrowly defined) is involved. As I see it, the main difference between liberals and libertarians is that the latter tend to focus only on ways that the state can restrict people's freedom. Liberals believe that people are not really free to develop their full potential if it takes all their resources just to survive, if they are unfairly discriminated against, or if they do not have access to basic self-improvement tools such as quality education and employment. To the extent that the economic system allows those conditions to continue, it also restricts freedom.

Contrary to what some conservative propagandists would have you believe, liberalism is not synonymous with "big government" or the Democratic Party. Liberals do tend, however, to see democratic government as "us" and not "them".

(see also Eric Zorn on liberalism, and Rebecca Knight's The Finer Points of Liberalism)

Progressive:

Sometimes people use this term to simply mean "very liberal". Here I tend to use it as a synonym for the type of liberalism described above, as opposed to the watered-down, we're-slightly-less-corporatist-than-the-Republicans-and-we'll-let-you-have-blowjobs, position of the Democratic Party these days...

(see also the Turn Left political glossary.)

Last modified May 28, 2002.

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