Bench Memos

Ginsburg and “Abortion Doctors”

A follow-up to Matt’s second point here:  Justice Ginsburg imagines that Justice Kennedy’s use of “the pejorative label ‘abortion doctor’” reveals his supposed hostility to abortion.  (Never mind his endorsement of a constitutional right to abortion in Casey.)  In fact, “abortion doctor” is a euphemism that pro-abortion groups developed and use as an alternative to the term “abortionist” (a word that earned its stigma and that, as I pointed out here, some abortionists use to describe themselves).  See here for an example of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s use of “abortion doctor”. 


 

Real doctors don’t deliberately kill human beings in the course of their medical practice.  Indeed, the Hippocratic Oath proscribes abortion.

Ed Whelan holds the Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and is a regular contributor to National Review’s Bench Memos blog.
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