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roanoke9 wrote

Does it sound like wikipedia is supporting the definition of abortion to include miscarriage? Which is never popularly used that way in my experience. But has been worded that way in the worst anti-abortion state laws.

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fortmis OP wrote

They point out at the beginning that miscarriage is sometimes referred to as a natural abortion and then it seems they sort of dismiss it after that. Seemed pretty harmless to me... but Do you think it's inappropriate?

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roanoke9 wrote (edited )

In and if itself, I wouldn't make a big deal of it. But in the context of the laws being drafted and the frequency with which people in the US read the first wikipedia article they see and base decisions off of it, I don't regard it as a good choice to mention what is a pretty obscure usage of the term.

It seemed like subtle propaganda to me.

I don't use wikipedia much, and when I do I have the same policy that I use for basuc search engine results, which is to use them for only the most basic and superficial info, like what year an event occurred. Anything involving interpretation or a deeper reading of any subject I look elsewhere.

I imagined this scenario: an apolitical or centrist us reader, sees that a law treats miscarriage and abortion as synonyms, thinks; hmmm, I have never in my life heard it used this way( because people don't) and checks wikipedia real quick: the answer they get is : yeah, I guess it DOES have some precedent. Ultimately it is a nitpicky take on my part at best. Because laws are BS, the best "abortion rights" praxis is for many people to know how to do them safely and discreetly and if wikipedia is the be all end all of someone's knowledge on a subject, they already got the wrong idea even if the article were the best one ever written.

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fortmis OP wrote

Ya that makes sense. Maybe it belongs later in the article under a heading like "misconceptions" haha. I mean you could edit the page right?? ;)

Sigh, just noticed the relationship between the words "abortion" and "misconception" ... As in "mistake conception"...

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roanoke9 wrote

Rather than rewrite one article, an anarchopedia might be a fun, if mindbogglingly gigantic project.

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