They said it.
One pro-choice activist wrote:
“There is nothing moral about giving birth to children we cannot feed and care for … It is precisely because women take lives sacredly – our own as well as our children’s – that some of us choose not to bring into the world those we cannot take care of.”
Quoted in:
Rosalind Pollack Petchesky Abortion and Women’s Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom (New York: Longman, 1984) 376
Pro-choice writer Carolyn McLeod says there should be “fairly radical changes in obstetrical practice” to dehumanize preborn babies. She says:
“… In some obstetrical contexts it may be appropriate to view fetuses as separate (e.g., in fetal surgery); however, overall, they should not be defined as separate or independent entities.
During ultrasound scanning, sonographers and physicians should try to avoid descriptions which suggests that they are self-sustaining beings.…
We need a model of pregnancy as a relation, but not one that is so exact that it cannot accommodate varying degrees to which women view their fetuses as part of them.”
Carolyn McLeod Self–Trust and Reproductive Autonomy (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2002) 159 – 160
Of course, scientifically, preborn babies are “separate and independent entities” and not a part of a woman’s body. McLeod seems to see a threat in the way sonographers and obstetricians regard preborn babies and communicate their existence to mothers. This seems to threaten the pro-choice talking point that preborn babies are not human beings.
Pro-Choice author Lisa M Mitchell was unimpressed with the ultrasound she had while pregnant. Nevertheless, she refers to the entity in her womb as a baby:
“What I recall most vividly during my first ultrasound was the technician’s concern when I didn’t seem interested in the swirling grey mass on the screen. From my perspective, lying on my back with an enormous belly and a full bladder, I just wanted the scan to be over. I now understand the technician incorrectly read my reaction to the ultrasound as a sign that I was ambivalent about or possibly even rejecting the baby.”
Lisa M Mitchell Baby’s First Picture: Ultrasound and the Politics of Fetal Subjects (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Inc., 2001) 50-91
Mitchell spends the entire book defending abortion but seems to know that women are pregnant with babies and that her child was a baby in the womb.
Share on FacebookPro-choice author Laurie Shrage, describing late-term abortion:
“dismemberment, craniotomy, or the injection of a chemical that causes cardiac arrest, whereas abortion in the first trimester involves a less physically violent killing and dying process.”
Lauri Shrage Abortion and Social Responsibility: Depolarizing the Debate (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) 57
This pro-choice activist admits that abortion, even early abortion, causes a “killing and dying process.” She is under no illusions that abortion kills.
Share on FacebookPro-Choice author Robert D Goldstein, who believes that infants after birth aren’t people, says in his book:
“To repeat, there is no such thing as a baby, there is only a dyadic mother – infant unit.”
Robert D Goldstein Mother – Love and Abortion: A Legal Interpretation (Berkeley, California: University Of California Press, 1988) 47
Share on FacebookPro-choice authors Jules Saltman and Stanley Zimbering write:
“In the earliest days of the existence of an impregnated egg, getting rid of it may be as simple as removing a wart from the side of the nose.”
Jules Saltman and Stanley Zimbering Abortion Today (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C Thomas Publisher, 1973) 15
There is no such thing as an “impregnated egg,” any more than there is such a thing as a “fertilized sperm.” The accurate term for a new human life just implanted in the womb is “embryo.”
Before this, the new human being is called a “zygote.” Calling an embryo an impregnated egg (or fertilized egg) is an attempt to muddy the waters and is scientifically inaccurate.
Although an early embryo may not yet look like a baby, the embryo is still a human being in a very early stage of development.
Share on FacebookPro-choice author Lisa M Mitchell writes:
“For some parents, the ability to see fetal parts [in the ultrasound] – especially the beating heart – and to see the fetus sucking its thumb, kicking, excreting, and responding to external stimuli may demonstrate that the fetus is aware of its surroundings and has the potential for or actually possesses distinctive human consciousness and personhood.”
Lisa M Mitchell Baby’s First Picture: Ultrasound and the Politics of Fetal Subjects (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Inc., 2001) 6
Mitchell laments this fact throughout the book.
Share on FacebookPro-choice activist Donald Regan:
“Pregnancy is painful. It involves a significant risk of death. It represents an intrusion into the most intimate parts of the woman’s body… Laws forbidding abortion involve the requisitioning of the woman’s body by the state… [The woman is] relegated to the status of a broodmare (for this is how the pregnant woman may well view the matter) by society at large.”
Many women would disagree with this man about pregnancy. This pro-choice activist, who is presenting pregnancy as a terrible violation, is not writing from any kind of experience.
Billions of women worldwide are or were mothers, and many of them embraced pregnancy.
Donald H Regan “Rewriting Roe V Wade” Michigan Law Review 77, no. 7 (1979): 1616 – 1617
Share on FacebookA woman named Isa who had an abortion by pill said:
“It’s not a heartless decision at all. Some people say it’s just cells — it’s still definitely a magical little being.”
The article about Isa says:
“Isa said she had “baby fever” up until the time she would have given birth. Even so, she doesn’t regret her decision because she feels her baby’s spirit is still with her all the time. She said in a way she considers herself a mother and she believes her baby is at peace and is not angry with her.”
Isa says:
“My conversations with women about their abortions have been some of the most connective and beautiful conversations I’ve had.”
MAGGIE QUINLAN and RACHEL SUN “You Know Her: Six Pullman women tell their abortion stories” The Daily Evergreen May 23, 2019
Share on FacebookPro-choice activist Linda Layne wrote:
“Because antiabortion activists base their argument on the presence of fetal, and even more importantly, embryonic personhood, feminists have studiously avoided anything that might imply or concede such a presence.
The fear, in the context of pregnancy loss, is that if one were to acknowledge that there was something of value lost, something worth grieving in a miscarriage, one would thereby automatically accede the inherent personhood of embryos and fetuses.”
Linda Layne Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America (New York: Rutledge, 2003) 240
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