NHS Abortion Care Leaflet

I went to a doctor's surgery yesterday and found a leaflet for 'Abortion Care' offered by the NHS.

Under 'important things to remember for your consultation' it said:

'We don't have facilities for children at our centres'.

Oh, but they do. The facilities positively welcome children!

The leaflet was full of fascinatingly convoluted language concerning abortion.

For instance, the abortion pill, taken between 9 and 24 weeks of pregnancy 'involves taking medication to cause the womb to contract and push out the pregnancy.'

Strange use of language there - to 'push out the pregnancy'. An online medical dictionary defines 'pregnancy' as 'the period from conception to birth'. Does this make sense?

The abortion pill taken between 9 and 24 weeks of pregnancy involves taking medication to cause the womb to contract and push out the period from conception to birth.

So concerned are our dear NHS, so glorified by the Olympics opening ceremony that patients shouldn't attribute any humanity or indeed even allow for the fact that this is describing a physical being that they have recourse to a most vulgar kind of word destruction or, at least, misuse of words.

Why not be honest?

The abortion pill, taken between 9 and 24 weeks of pregnancy involves taking medication to cause the womb to contract and push out the baby.

There, that wasn't so hard was it. But it gets better, or, indeed, worse. Dilation and evacuation, according to the leaflet, takes place between 15 and 24 weeks of pregnancy. So far, so up front. What happens? Well, according to the NHS, the doctor:

'...will remove the pregnancy using narrow forceps passed through the neck of the womb.'

Come again? So the doctor removes the period from conception to birth using narrow forceps passed through the neck of the womb?

Surely, it is the fetus or unborn baby that is removed using narrow forceps passed through the neck of the womb? Yet, according to the leaflet, vacuum aspiration too involves removing the period from conception to birth by 'gentle suction'.

Even online medical dictionaries do not appear to recognise this new use/abuse of language by our dear NHS. Orwell, I think, might have recognised this use of language for what it is.