Speaking our language

Abortion: The Supreme Court’s ruling on partial-birth abortion—and especially its clear description of the horrifying procedure—may give momentum to pro-life legislation across the country | Lynn Vincent

Was the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 abortion decision on April 18 an early Mother's Day gift to American women (and their unborn children)? When Justice Anthony Kennedy, upholding with four other justices the federal ban on partial-birth abortion in the case, Gonzales v. Carhart, wrote that "respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child," was he writing a Hallmark card or a hallmark decision that will lead to the saving of millions of lives?

Analysts of language and law say Kennedy's opinion suggests that a slim Court majority will now talk plainly about the real relationship between the two human beings operated on during an abortion—a mother and an unborn child. In the 39-page opinion Kennedy, joined by justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, repeatedly referred to a "mother" rather than a "woman," and a "child" rather than a "fetus."