In the midst of a national debate on a slew of recently-passed state abortion laws, NPR, America’s national taxpayer-funded public radio service, issued a guidance notice to its reporters reminding them what terms the outlet deems acceptable when talking about abortion – including that they shouldn’t ever use the word “baby” to describe an unborn child before the moment of birth.

Straight from NPR’s “guidance" (emphasis added):

The term “unborn” implies that there is a baby inside a pregnant woman, not a fetus. Babies are not babies until they are born. They’re fetuses. Incorrectly calling a fetus a “baby” or “the unborn” is part of the strategy used by antiabortion groups to shift language/legality/public opinion. Use “unborn” only when referring to the title of the bill (and after President Bush signs it, the Unborn Victims of Violence Law). Or qualify the use of “unborn” by saying “what anti-abortion groups call the ‘unborn’ victims of violence.” The most neutral language to refer to the death of a fetus during a crime is “fetal homicide.”



NPR also added that its employees should refrain from using the term “abortion clinics.”

NPR doesn’t use the term “abortion clinics.” We say instead, “medical or health clinics that perform abortions.” The point is to not to use abortion before the word clinic. The clinics perform other procedures and not just abortions.

Additionally, NPR adds reporters should never use the terms “partial birth abortion” or late-term abortion” to describe the grisly third-trimester procedures in which an unborn baby is injected with poison before being pulled out whole by the abortionist. Instead, NPR mandates using the more clinical term “intact dilation and extraction.”

When describing whether someone is pro-life or pro-abortion, NPR explains that it's fine to say "anti-abortion," but not "pro-abortion":

On the air, we should use “abortion rights supporter(s)/advocate(s)” and “abortion rights opponent(s)” or derivations thereof (for example: “advocates of abortion rights”). It is acceptable to use the phrase “anti-abortion rights,” but do not use the term “pro-abortion rights.”



Despite its clear bias on the abortion issue, NPR is still publicly funded by the government via taxpayers. According to Fortune,the government spends approximately $450 million annually on public broadcasting, including the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).