The AP Stylebook is used by journalists throughout the industry, and it is often a part of the curriculum used by journalism courses in college settings.
New guidelines recommend the use of the terms anti-abortion counseling centers, "crisis pregnancy centers" (with quotation marks) that oppose abortions, and anti-abortion centers. AP deems these terms acceptable to describe "centers set up to divert or discourage women from having abortions."
“If using the term anti-abortion center,” the guidelines read, “explain later that these often are known as ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ and that their aim is to dissuade people from getting an abortion.”
The guidelines urge journalists to “avoid potentially misleading terms such as pregnancy resource centers or pregnancy counseling centers,” because “these terms don’t convey that the centers’ general aim is to prevent abortions.”
AP acknowledges in the guidelines that the centers provide "counseling, material support and/or housing," but endorses this new language because it believes the centers' primary purpose is to “divert or discourage women from having abortions.”
The new guidelines go on to endorse the use of "anti-abortion" and "abortion rights" instead of "pro-life" and "pro-choice." It tells journalists to gaslight the public by using the term "cardiac activity" instead of "fetal heartbeat. AP argues that "the embryo isn't yet a fetus and it has only begun forming a rudimentary heart."
