Let’s Get Creative

Broadsheet’s Lynn Harris:

I've said it before, I'll say it again -- and now Rachel Joy Larris at TomPaine.com says there's a renewed call, too: The "pro-choice" movement needs a better name. Larris reports that Al Quinlan, a pollster who has been working with opponents of the abortion ban in South Dakota, says that "'choice' carries a meaning that works against us."

Lynn points out that “choice” is not only insufficient because choosing to get an abortion is simply not the same as choosing what outfit to wear to work each day, but also because it evokes for too many people the image of “a bunch of affluent women choosing among an array of options… When it comes to the rights we’re fighting for, after all, so many women have next to no choice at all.”

There’s more at the link, but it boils down to this: Is there a better name for what we generally call “pro-choice”?

I tend to favor “reproductive rights,” which, to my mind, encompasses everything from the right to comprehensive sex education to emergency contraception to abortion to the decision not to have children at all. It’s not very catchy, though, I guess. Got any ideas?