Well, it's pete's way of being politically correct. Either that or it just saves him ink in that he doesn't have to say "boyhood or girlhood of the unborn". The hypocrisy of his stance is that fundamentalism in religion, such as he preaches himself, is exactly what is responsible for high rates of abortion. Fundamentalism and evangelism support ignorance (as abundantly revealed by any of pete's ludicrous utterances about science, if you've ever seen any of them), they oppose proper sex education, they teach that contraception is wrong and they treat women as second-class citizens, fit only to be moralised at. Sensible people know exactly how we can humanely reduce abortion without driving women to the back streets, as pete would have it, and without pontificating to and moralising at them, as pete has just done.