Orwellian Abortion-Speak
Brian Lamb, creator of C-Span, has greatly informed those of us watching the channel -- as recently in airing the two-hour oral arguments on whether Congress can ban partial-birth abortion, called by doctors who perform the procedure, intact dilation and extraction. What fascinated me throughout the debate and the reactions of the justices was, as George Orwell put it, the way language can be, and is so often used, "as an instrument which we shape for our own purposes." Only rarely did any participant speak plainly about the procedure ... I often heard references to "fetal demise."