That's what the wingnuts want to do. This post, from Bean at L, G & M, is just the latest episode:
There's news today that lawmakers in Missouri are trying to get emergency contraception (aka Plan B) classified as a drug that induces abortion. The proposed law would also (or perhaps principally) provide protection for moralizing pharmacists who don't want to do their jobs and who refuse to distribute EC.
You may remember that a few years ago, the Kansas Board of Education redefined "science" so that ID could be included in science curriculums -- along with astrology and Tarot reading, I guess. (I should note that I don't find Tarot reading laughable, for reasons that seem sensible to me, but prognotisications of the future are not in the cards, so to speak. Astrology, I'm dubious about.) After being laughed at for a couple of years, the good citizens of Kansas kicked those idiots out and redefined "science" to mean "science."
But this is the tactic. It's not a new one, it's merely an extension of the straw-man argument: instead of holding up a false picture of your opponent's argument, you redefine the basis terms so that the false picture is the "real" picture -- see, it says so right here. It's a fairly simple-minded tactic, and I'd have to be thinking you're a bit simple-minded yourself if you expect it to work.
Another characteristic of the nutty right: they think they're smarter than anyone else, despite all the evidence.
(Question of the day: Why does this sort of thing comes out of government bodies?)
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