"There are no unborn children in science"

There are no unborn children in science, Ted. There are fetuses. If you can’t get basic terminology correct, then take a seat in the back of class and shut up because the adults are talking. https://t.co/JOdRdGDeOC

— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) February 28, 2020

1. Philosopher Kyle Blanchette responded to Gunter and her ilk months ago.

2. The basic issue is that Gunter falsely assumes "unborn child" and "fetus" can't be referring to the same person. Sure, one term is colloquial (unborn child), while the other is technical (fetus), but they're pointing to the same individual. It's like saying I'm a human being vs. I'm a Homo sapiens. Both mean the same thing, even though one is less technical than the other.

3. However, Gunter isn't even correct about there being "no unborn children in science" by which I assume she means the scientific literature doesn't use the term "unborn children" or similar phrases.

a. The medical scientific literature does use "unborn" babies or children. For example:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29696995
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30947881
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26220128
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30430013
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28613398

b. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) hosts literature referring to "unborn" children or babies. For example:

• https://www.acog.org/-/media/Departments/Tobacco-Alcohol-and-Substance-Abuse/Reading-list-PDFs/Alcohol-Alert-82.pdf
• https://www.acog.org/-/media/Departments/Tobacco-Alcohol-and-Substance-Abuse/ThinkDontDrink.pdf
• https://www.acog.org/-/media/Departments/Tobacco-Alcohol-and-Substance-Abuse/An-Alcohol-Free-Pregnancy-is-the-Best-Choice-for-Your-Baby.pdf
• https://www.acog.org/-/media/Departments/Tobacco-Alcohol-and-Substance-Abuse/Reading-list-PDFs/Elek-et-al2013Women-s-Knowledge-Views-and-Experiences-Regarding-Alcohol-Use-and-Pregnancy-Opportunit.pdf

c. Same goes for OB/GYN textbooks. For example:

Finally - but certainly not last - we acknowledge our significant debt to the women who have entrusted themselves and their unborn children to us for obstetrical care. The clinical expertise and many graphic illustrations presented in this text would not have been possible without their collaborative spirit to help us advance obstetrical knowledge...

F. Gary Cunningham
Kenneth J. Leveno
Steven L. Bloom
Jodi S. Dashe
Barbara L. Hoffman
Brian M. Casey
Catherine Y. Spong

All the above signatories are physicians (MDs). All are OB/GYNs.

The quotation is an excerpt from the "Acknowledgements" section in the OB/GYN textbook Williams Obstetrics, 25th ed. (2018). Currently Amazon allows people to read the section. I've likewise saved a screenshot here.

4. As George Orwell said in his famous essay "Politics and the English Language":

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible...Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements. Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them...designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

One might wish to add: Unborn babies are murdered in their own mother's wombs and this is called termination of pregnancy.

5. Finally: