Horrific criminal allegations about a California woman being forced at gunpoint to abort her unborn baby are being softened by the word choices of some mainstream media outlets.

Possibly to avoid giving any negative light to abortion, NBC News referred to the alleged crime as a “miscarriage” rather than an abortion, The Blaze reports. Abortion is a more accurate description because, unlike a miscarriage, it is the intentional killing of an unborn baby.

Last week, LifeNews reported about the arrest of Jagmeet Sandhu, 23, of Bakersfield, California, on suspicion of murder, domestic assault and false imprisonment. According to police, he allegedly forced his girlfriend at gunpoint to take abortion drugs to kill their unborn child.

The New York Daily News reports Bakersfield Police said they responded to a call from the woman’s family around 1 a.m. Dec. 11. The family member told police that the woman “had been held at gunpoint and forced by her boyfriend to ingest numerous unknown-type pills in an effort to force a miscarriage.”

Police said they later found the woman at a local hospital where she miscarried her unborn baby. It is not clear how far along in the pregnancy she was or what abortion drugs she may have been forced to ingest.

According to 23 ABC News Bakersfield, the victim told the Kern County Sheriff’s Office that Sandhu pressured her to have an abortion but she refused. She said they broke up about a month ago.

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Here’s more from the report:

Then on December 10th, Sandhu entered the victim’s residence using a key he had not returned to the victim after the break-up of the relationship. The victim said it appeared that Sandhu had pre-planned the attack, showing up wearing gloves and holding a gun. He had also brought pills and ordered the victim to “take these pills or I’m going to kill you.” Sandhu held the victim at gunpoint for three hours until, fearing for her safety, she took 11 pills. When the victim became ill, Sandhu fled the scene. The victim then went to a local hospital where an attending doctor confirmed that her unborn child had died as a result of having taken the pills.

NBC News and other national media outlets also covered the horrific story, but some of them chose to describe the unborn baby’s death as a “miscarriage.” NBC affiliate KGET-TV and ABC affiliate KERO-TV also used the term “miscarriage” in their stories, rather than abortion, according to The Blaze. LifeNews observed that The Sacramento Bee and 23 ABC News Bakersfield did as well.

Here’s more from The Blaze:

NBC’s peculiar choice of words was heavily criticized by conservative leaders. Reached by telephone on Saturday, writer Kassy Dillon blasted NBC News’ wording of the crime and argued that the use of euphemisms to describe abortions is part of a broader trend among pro-choice activists. “It’s just insane that they’re calling it a miscarriage,” said the founder of Lone Conservative. “He forced her to take pills at gunpoint. He forced her to have an abortion at gunpoint.”

On Twitter, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said NBC should be ashamed.

“This isn’t ‘inducing a miscarriage,’” she wrote. “This is forcing a woman to have an abortion. The lengths the media will go to ensure abortion never receives negative coverage is really astounding. Shame on @NBCNews.”