[Ads-l] re-antedating of "pro-life"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I believe that in the 1969 Cleveland Plain Dealer citation, "pro-life" does not have the specific meaning of "anti-abortion," rather it refers to opposition to birth control or to adherence to a broad Catholic agenda on sexuality.

Fred Shapiro


________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Bill Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, June 3, 2022 5:11 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: re-antedating of "pro-life"

1969 Cleveland Plain Dealer 28 Sep. 28/1
Pro-life, and pro-person, Pope Paul's encyclical may yet turn out to be also the defense of human sexuality against mere sex.


1970 Chicago Daily News 29 Apr 14/3
Mrs. Cook, R.N., in a recent letter to you, states she has "been taught respect and preservation of life."  If this is her philosophy of life, she should also favor pro-life legalities.  Rather than destroying life, abortion by consent usually preserves life, i.e. the life of extra-uterine creatures.


>
> A couple years back Fred Shapiro shared a 1969 quote for "pro-life" (OED's
> earliest quote being from 1971):
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flistserv.linguistlist.org%2Fpipermail%2Fads-l%2F2020-&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cd66f8645fa034ebb06dd08da45a5b0f2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637898875483233704%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7bBvGeSq5ducn1dLLTxBHXU11FDuO6xiJXHK1W7h5e0%3D&reserved=0
> January/156379.html
>
> Unfortunately, it seems this was a case of bad newspapers.com metadata. The
> quoted article was from 1989, which was mis-OCR'd as 1969.
>
> However I was able to find a genuine 1970 antedating from the May 6 issue of
> The Ottawa Journal, also via newspapers.com: "Philip Cooper said he preferred
> to describe the group he belongs to as pro-life rather than anti-abortion. The
> organization believes human life exists from the moment of conception and
> that any attempt to destroy that life is a crime."
>
> In case anyone is interested, I wrote up a little blog post about the origins of
> "pro-life" and "pro-choice" (and the question of which came first), here:
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcolinmorris.github.io%2Fblog%2Fprolife-antedating&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cd66f8645fa034ebb06dd08da45a5b0f2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637898875483233704%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eWAF5syLEeuBmhi7X8Mc5Ttps78RVAolU1fGBe%2BqYX0%3D&reserved=0
>


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The American Dialect Society - https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cd66f8645fa034ebb06dd08da45a5b0f2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637898875483233704%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=NkKXHDCBXHaHPnl4DHnaGPamrjzW%2FHFM7oPNAabnB6E%3D&reserved=0

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Bill Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, June 3, 2022 5:11 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: re-antedating of "pro-life"

1969 Cleveland Plain Dealer 28 Sep. 28/1
Pro-life, and pro-person, Pope Paul's encyclical may yet turn out to be also the defense of human sexuality against mere sex.


1970 Chicago Daily News 29 Apr 14/3
Mrs. Cook, R.N., in a recent letter to you, states she has "been taught respect and preservation of life."  If this is her philosophy of life, she should also favor pro-life legalities.  Rather than destroying life, abortion by consent usually preserves life, i.e. the life of extra-uterine creatures.


>
> A couple years back Fred Shapiro shared a 1969 quote for "pro-life" (OED's
> earliest quote being from 1971):
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flistserv.linguistlist.org%2Fpipermail%2Fads-l%2F2020-&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cd66f8645fa034ebb06dd08da45a5b0f2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637898875483233704%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7bBvGeSq5ducn1dLLTxBHXU11FDuO6xiJXHK1W7h5e0%3D&reserved=0
> January/156379.html
>
> Unfortunately, it seems this was a case of bad newspapers.com metadata. The
> quoted article was from 1989, which was mis-OCR'd as 1969.
>
> However I was able to find a genuine 1970 antedating from the May 6 issue of
> The Ottawa Journal, also via newspapers.com: "Philip Cooper said he preferred
> to describe the group he belongs to as pro-life rather than anti-abortion. The
> organization believes human life exists from the moment of conception and
> that any attempt to destroy that life is a crime."
>
> In case anyone is interested, I wrote up a little blog post about the origins of
> "pro-life" and "pro-choice" (and the question of which came first), here:
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcolinmorris.github.io%2Fblog%2Fprolife-antedating&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cd66f8645fa034ebb06dd08da45a5b0f2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637898875483233704%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eWAF5syLEeuBmhi7X8Mc5Ttps78RVAolU1fGBe%2BqYX0%3D&reserved=0
>


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The American Dialect Society - https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cd66f8645fa034ebb06dd08da45a5b0f2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637898875483233704%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=NkKXHDCBXHaHPnl4DHnaGPamrjzW%2FHFM7oPNAabnB6E%3D&reserved=0

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org