the 'anti-abortion' aria

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 08, 2011

Question: When high-school students give a free choral concert at a nursing home, what do you call that?

Answer: If you write for the Fitchburg (Massachusetts) Sentinel and Enterprise, you call it “anti-abortion activity.”

Now suppose some other high-school students volunteer to clean up at a home for pregnant women; what do you call that?

You guessed it; that’s “anti-abortion activity” too.

On January 22, many students from the Trivium School—a small, independent Catholic school in Lancaster, Massachusetts—traveled to Washington to join in the March for Life. For those who stayed home, the school offered three activities: singing at the nursing home, helping out at the pregnancy-care home, or praying the Rosary at a nearby Planned Parenthood clinic. The school’s headmaster, William Schmitt, explained: “Being pro-life is not just about abortion, but it’s about fostering life in every stage.”

Quite right. Whichever option they chose that day, the Trivium School students were engaged in pro-life activity. But American journalists cannot bring themselves to use the term “pro-life,” so singing at a nursing home becomes “anti-abortion” activity.

Who knows? If one of those Trivium sopranos is exceptionally talented, and works very hard to develop her vocal skills, maybe some day she can do “anti-abortion activity” at La Scala!