National Review
The Fine Points of Usage at the New York Times
By Ramesh Ponnuru
January 29, 2025 1:53 PM
heartbeats: A term to be avoided or criticized in discussions of abortion.
rare: Fine if used in reference to abortions late in pregnancy, forbidden in reference to school shootings.
late-term abortion: In recent years, we have been advised by supporters of the thing to quit using the phrase. Consult the ACOG website to see if the guidance has changed.
unborn child: A tricky one. Normally to be put in quotation marks in the context of abortion. In October, we ran an article saying, “Trump guidance could go further, to say that EMTALA requires hospitals to treat the ‘unborn child’ as a patient and to take measures to save its life.” But in certain other contexts no quotation marks are needed. See last week’s article, “Undocumented Women Ask: Will My Unborn Child Be a Citizen?” The term may also be used without quotation marks to describe the fears of pregnant women in Gaza. Consult your editors if you have any questions!
National Review
Trump Is Right to Curb Abuse of the FACE Act
By The Editors
January 28, 2025 6:30 AM
Among President Trump’s first-week actions was the rectification of an injustice committed by the Biden administration. Progressives may be soft on crime, but the Biden-Garland Justice Department proved willing to be tough, even sadistic, on pro-lifers. People who interfered with access to abortion clinics were tossed around the courts and into prison as if they were members of a violent racketeering outfit.
The department sought absurdly long sentences under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, seeking to imprison for eleven years anti-abortion activists Jean Marshall and Joan Bell. That’s more years in prison than can be legally given for arson or aggravated assault in D.C. The DOJ deliberately blurred the line between protesting in front of clinics and obstructing them, to give a special and unnecessary protection to abortion clinics from acts of free speech.
Even the Obama administration had not engaged in this kind of prosecutorial overkill. In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, however, Biden was eager to demonstrate that he was doing everything in his power to support abortion.
Now Trump has appropriately pardoned the victims of this abuse. Even better, Trump is seeking to limit the application of the FACE Act to truly extraordinary instances in which violence is threatened. The guidance going forward stipulates that cases that don’t present these aggravating factors are to be handled by local law enforcement, if any laws apply at all.
Trump has given pro-lifers some reason for nervousness, but these early decisions deserve to be cheered.
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