If not saved, then what?

If not saved, then what?

“Winning babes”

MORE than 2,000 babies have been ‘saved’ from abortion by a controversial scheme set up by the late Cardinal Thomas Winning to persuade women to keep their child.

The Pro-Life Initiative, which marks its 10th anniversary next March, has revealed that it has dealt with a total of 2,102 mothers, each of whom has received prams, clothes, toys and cots totalling hundreds of pounds in exchange for carrying on with their pregnancy.

Okay, so we know that scheme in British English simply means plan, and does not imply anything bad. But why the scare quotes around “saved”? In this context, the quotes are the equivalent of saying “so-called” to imply that one side of controversial issue uses the term while the other side would dispute it.

But what else would you say? These 2,000+ babies would have been aborted, but because of this program they were born and are now living. They have been saved from “termination” (that’s how you use scare quotes). What word would the reporter and editors at The Scotsman use? Sometimes it’s the punctuation that reveals the bias.

[Thanks to Amy Welborn for the link.]

Technorati Tags:, , , , ,

Share:FacebookX

Archives

Categories