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Baby-killer

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"The End of a Baby-killer" -Burning Zeppelin on a WWI propaganda postcard

A defamation used to accuse people of infanticide.[1]

Sensationalizing the sensitive issue of Wikipedia:abortion dates back to at least 1894 in the United States. In that year the Wikipedia:Associated Press used the term "the baby killers" when it published an article about a raid on the office of alleged abortionists.[1]

It was used again in the year 1910 as an invective against patent medicines.[1]

During World War I (WP), it was commonly used to in Allied propaganda to refer to German Zeppelin airships or their crews. The Zeppelin lighter-than-air aircraft were used to bomb civilian targets. Wikipedia:Winston Churchill after the Wikipedia:raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, called the Germans "the baby killers of Scarborough".[1]

It was said to have been shouted at a returning Vietnam war veteran in the 1970s.[2] The incident was widely reported, becoming embellished in the telling, until it became widely accepted that it was a common occurrence for protestors to confront soldiers in this way. Along with another creation by war advocates about Viet Nam, the concept of the war having been lost by the generals and the media (which dovetailed quite nicely with the perennial complaints of soldiers to their leadership), the 'baby killer' meme was used twice in the Rambo movie Wikipedia:First Blood.[3]

Wikipedia:George Tiller was first discussed on Wikipedia:The O'Reilly Factor on February 25, 2005 as "Tiller the Baby Killer".[1][4] O'Reilly did not invent the nickname; previously, Congressman Wikipedia:Robert K. Dornan had used it on the floor of Congress.

It is also a term used against Wikipedia:pro choice advocates. It was shouted by Representative Wikipedia:Randy Neugebauer during a 2010 House of Representatives debate of the Wikipedia:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[1][5] It has been argued that such usage foments violence against abortion providers.[6]

See also

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Baby killer

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Definitions, etymology, pronunciation of
Baby-killer

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Wikipedia:Brooke Gladstone and Wikipedia:Allan Lichtman (March 26, 2010). "Infant Mortality". Wikipedia:On The Media. http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/03/26/06. Retrieved 2011-03-02. "During debate last weekend on the Health Care Bill, Republican Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas yelled out, “It’s a baby killer” on the House floor. ... Of course, Neugebauer joins legions of those who have invoked this powerful defamation. American University professor Allan Lichtman says that the phrase holds a prominent place in the catalog of public accusations. Even as applied to so-called abortionists, the term 'baby killer' dates back at least to eighteen-hundred and ninety-four (1894) in the United States. In that year, the Associated Press published a story about a raid on the office of alleged abortionists. Of course, in those days abortion was illegal, and they called the abortionists “the baby killers.” And the story was extremely lurid, although brief, and it talked about finding dead babies on the floor of the office and condemned the unnamed, unknown perpetrators as the baby killers of 1894. So sensationalizing the whole issue, the sensitive emotional issue of abortion, is absolutely nothing new. It dates back well over 100 years in American history. ... And these patent medicines were damned as 'the baby killers.' ... Winston Churchill, then head of the British Navy, seized on the naval bombardment of the town of Scarborough to brand the Germans as 'the baby killers of Scarborough.' ... Bringing this back to abortion, more recently Dr. George Tiller, who performed abortions and was murdered by an anti-abortion activist, was nicknamed “Tiller, the Baby Killer,” and it was a phrase that was often repeated by Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor." </li>
  2. Wikipedia:James E. Westheider (2007). The Vietnam War. "Someone called John Ballweg a baby killer after coming home from Vietnam. Like many returning veterans, he never argued with them but would simply tell them that they did not know what they were talking about. ..."
  3. Wikipedia:Brooke Gladstone and Wikipedia:Jerry Lembcke (July 3, 2009). "Great Expectorations". Wikipedia:On The Media. http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/07/03/05. Retrieved 2011-03-02. "It wasn’t my war. You asked me, I didn’t ask you and I did what I had to do to win, but somebody wouldn’t let us win. And I come back to the world and I see maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting, calling me baby-killer and all kinds of vile crap! ... That was the worst afternoon of being American that I've ever had in my life. And they actually made me feel ashamed to be a soldier, almost. They, they – they kept calling me a baby killer and a murderer, and they said I was a disgrace, and I had blood covering my hands. They don't know how I sleep at night. ..." </li>
  4. "O'Reilly's campaign against murdered doctor. The Fox News star had compared Tiller to a Nazi, called him a 'baby killer,' and warned of 'Judgment Day'". salon.com. 2009-05-31. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/31/tiller/. Retrieved 2009-05-31. </li>
  5. Quenqua, Douglas (March 24, 2010). "They Can’t Wait to Tell You". Wikipedia:New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/fashion/25noticed.html. Retrieved 2010-04-07. "When he copped to yelling 'baby killer' at Representative Bart Stupak during debate over the health-care bill on Sunday, Representative Randy Neugebauer became the latest member of a fast-growing club, the Interrupters." </li>
  6. Andryszewski, Tricia (2000-10-01). Gay Rights, p. 94–, Twenty-First Century Books. URL accessed 2 March 2011.
  7. </ol>