Women do not care what the personhood status of the fetus is in deciding whether or not to have abortions.
Joyce Arthur makes this point with Jerry Agar, and I fully agree.
Pro-life education campaigns need to draw attention to the humanity of the fetus at all stages of pregnancy so that it would filter into our subconscious that the fetus has humanity and matters in an extraordinary, supernatural way.
But pro-life counselling in the midst of crisis cannot focus on personhood, because that is not the predominant issue for women in crisis.
It is truly any number of the following issues: My life will change too much, I can’t envision this going well, I need to keep training for my Olympic bid, I don’t have the money, my husband is against me, my boyfriend will leave me, etc. etc. etc.
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Maybe they don’t care at the time, but I would hate to think how someone would feel after the fact, if they had a “Oh My God, what have I done?” moment.
Unfortunately, it is very hard to think clearly when you are in a crisis situation.
indeed, melissa. The bottom line however, is that unless a woman is entirely distant from her own body (it happens) she knows what a pregnancy is, that a child is inside her. Her child. The problem is the sinking feeling of “what have I done?” is entirely impossible to replicate for women ahead of the abortion.
Hmmm, Andrea. I’ve been pregnant 3 times, and in my experience (which, of course, is entirely personal and not indicative of anyone else’s experience, or women’s experience as a whole) I found that the pregnancy was fairly surreal for the first couple months. Although I knew intellectually that there was a baby growing in me, the baby didn’t become a real entity until I heard the heart beat. There is something about hearing or seeing a baby that makes the baby real, whereas without hearing or seeing the baby, the baby is almost merely in the realm of possibility.
I hope this makes sense. I would think it would be very, very easy to rationalize the baby away if faced with an unwanted pregnancy. And there are scores of people out there who are quite willing and ready to help rationalize the baby away too.
That makes sense, Melissa. The relationship hasn’t developed yet, maybe? That would make sense. I see abortion providers are desperate to go chemical–which you can only do early–and this might be why. As time progresses the bond forms? Maybe.
I’m not sure I understand what you are saying, Andrea. Isn’t personhood the same thing as humanity? Or do you mean personhood in the legal sense? Even then, in Canadian law, we actually use the term “human being” to signify personhood.
Dan, I suppose my comment had to do with what works in talking to a woman in her moment of crisis. There, talking personhood or humanity isn’t really the driving issue. It is the other things I mentioned. I’d like to build up the culture of life, such that personhood and humanity is completely understood and acknowledged, but for right now, if a woman goes for counselling at all, her questions are going to be around what this means for her life, and how her life will change, not whether the baby is a baby. Though I appreciated Melissa’s comments below, to be sure.