Decoding Abortion Rhetoric

Communicating Social Change

in English, 256 pages,
University of Illinois Press, February 01, 1994
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This demanding, scholarly work traces the rhetoric surrounding the abortion controversy in the United States from 1965 to 1985. Using a sophisticated framework of rhetorical analysis, Condit describes the process by which the persuasive argumentation and vocabulary used by “Pro-life” and “Pro-choice” advocates has evolved and how it has created a deadlocked situation at the activist level, while mass attitudes on abortion reflect a compromise between the two positions. For the general public, Condit says, abortion falls within the realm of personal choice, but is generally regarded as morally objectionable.