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If not for the Virginia Tech tragedy, the top story on CBSNews.com right now would likely be the decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. People on opposite sides of contentious issues like this often use certain terminology to try to frame the debate – see the "death tax" vs. "estate tax" argument. In this case, some, including President Bush, prefer the phrase "partial birth abortion," while others favor "late term abortion."

In covering the story, CBSNews.com has decided to go with this phrasing whenever possible: "what the law calls a partial birth abortion."

CBSNews.com Editorial Director (and sometime PE poster) Dick Meyer explained why.

"Both 'late term abortion' and 'partial birth abortion' are now phrases that signify a position, so we will use this phrasing though it is cumbersome," wrote Meyer in an email.

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will be hearing the case of Gonzales v. Carhart, which is effectively a constitutional test of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. With the case approaching, CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason sent an email to the CBS News staff regarding the terms "late term abortion" and "partial birth abortion." Mason wrote that CBS News should use the term “late term abortion” when referring to the procedure in question, not "partial birth abortion." I asked her why.

"We thought that 'partial birth' is a color phrase for people who are anti-abortion rights," said Mason. "This is a procedure usually done after 20 weeks. Therefore, 'late term' is appropriate. Now, some colleagues have come back to me and questioned this because the name of the law before the Supreme Court is the 'Partial-Birth Abortion.' When people refer to the case, they should call it by the correct name. But a CBS reporter should call the procedure a 'late term abortion.'"

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Coverage of the abortion debate leave the media open to charges of bias and mischaracterization like few others. Take the emotions and beliefs involved, add in some loaded terminology and tricky legal issues, and you’ve got quite a combustible mix on your hands. Are opponents of abortion “pro-life” or “anti-choice?” Is a particular procedure terminating a pregnancy “late-term abortion” or “partial-birth abortion” or something else entirely? What exactly does “health of the mother” mean? What would happen to abortion if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned? Would that mean all abortion would be outlawed?

It’s not easy to lay out a lot of this in a short “Evening News” story, but CBS Correspondent Wyatt Andrews did it as well as possible in his story last night about the Supreme Court decision to hear the case of a “late-term” or “partial-birth” abortion law passed by Congress and struck down by lower courts.

Andrews explained why this decision to hear the case was important news – because of the new makeup of the Court, particularly Associate Justice Samuel Alito who replaced traditional swing vote Sandra Day O’Connor. He explained what was prohibited by the law and the primary reason that the law has been struck down in the past – because it does not include an exception for the health of the mother. He interviewed a co-sponsor of the bill, Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) who explained why that provision was not included in the law – because supporters believe “health of the mother” could mean virtually anything.

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