Obama's Use of Children Over Fetus to Describe the Unborn

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

One line in particular in President Obama's Notre Dame speech really jumped out at me: "Let's provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term."

Obama used the word children as opposed to fetus, employing the nomenclature of antiabortion activists as opposed to that of the pro-abortion-rights movement. If the fetus is a child, antiabortion advocates say, how can you justify abortion?

Looking for precedent for that formulation, I came across Obama's referring to carrying a child to term in an interview last year. He was talking with Relevant magazine, a publication for young evangelicals:

"I have repeatedly said that I think it's entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother. Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term."

Is the president subtly invoking the antiabortion lexicon in addressing conservative religious audiences? Or am I reading too much into this?

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