At a White House meeting to find “common ground” on the abortion issue, an excruciatingly precise use of language has revealed the White House policy on reducing the number of abortions:

It’s YES to Obama’s “..let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions”.

But NO to the goal of reducing the number of abortions.

Confused? Aren’t they the same? No, those two goals drive very different sets of actions. The YES from the White House means that there will be no effort to change the minds of those who have chosen to seek an abortion. They will instead rely mainly on contraception, and some funding for pregnant women, to reduce the number of women who choose to seek an abortion. But once a woman has decided on abortion, nothing will be done to persuade them otherwise. The most obvious and direct method of reducing abortions — seeking out those who are, or who might, consider an abortion, and offering information and sources of concrete help — is ruled out.

But that difference is carefully hidden in the language. Change “abortion” to something else to see how it should sound: “Our goal is not to reduce the number of rapes, but to reduce the need for rape.” ugh.