Who’s Afraid Of The Word “Abortion”? The Biden Administration, Apparently

Article originally appeared in Refinery 29 on May 18th, 2021

Rather than use the word “abortion,” both Biden and Psaki have continued to opt for euphemistic terms like “reproductive health” or “access to choice.” To be clear, an abortion does technically fall under the larger umbrella of reproductive health; however, avoiding the word enables the stigma.

This isn't a one-off instance for the Biden team, either. If you’re not listening for it, the omission would almost go unnoticed. But upon further examination, the exclusion becomes glaringly obvious because the administration pretty much does it every time. “He has not said it at all since he took office, but definitely well before that,” Renee Bracey Sherman, founder of the abortion storytelling organization We Testify, told Refinery29. “I started noticing it pretty much on day one with the first press conference that the White House had on Inauguration Day.”