When considering the relationship between a mother and a prenatal baby, the mother\u2019s decisions are the ones that determine what happens. The mother gets to decide where the prenatal baby goes. Studying in class, frolicking on the beach, working hard in an office or a factory \u2013 mom\u2019s decision. The baby is just along for the ride. The mother decides what part of the country they live in, what they\u2019ll eat, who they\u2019ll interact with \u2013 everything. She\u2019ll decide whether she\u2019s raising the baby after birth, or making an adoption plan or other arrangements. The baby has to go with whatever she decides.<\/p>\n
Yes, the woman or teen mom is more important when it comes to decision-making. The baby isn\u2019t developed enough to figure out such things.<\/p>\n
No one is proposing that an embryo or fetus is more important than other human beings. The argument is that the right to not be killed is more important than any rights that are lesser than the right to not be killed. No one even has<\/em> <\/span>any other rights if they don\u2019t have the right to not be killed.<\/p>\n When Americans were fighting wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the number of Americans soldiers\u2019 deaths would be reported in American media. The deaths of local people weren\u2019t reported, as if they weren\u2019t as important. But they were every bit as important. Wars kill people deliberately, and every single killing in these wars was wrong. Every person was important and had the right to not be killed, be they soldiers on either side or civilians, adults or teens or children or babies. Every single one.<\/p>\n Yet when it comes to decision-making, there\u2019s nothing wrong with Vietnamese deciding that only Vietnamese can vote in Vietnamese elections and Americans can\u2019t. The same goes for every other country. Citizens of age are more important as decision-makers for public policy than non-citizens or the under-age.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t make it ok to kill or injure immigrants or kids.<\/p>\n \u201cImportance\u201d in decision-making is a separate issue from everyone having a right to not be killed.<\/p>\n Just about every single birth that has occurred throughout human history has been a forced birth.<\/p>\n The fetus was comfortable where she was, and now there\u2019s a sudden cold and a startling slap of light. And when she lets it be known right away and in no uncertain terms that she objects, we don\u2019t say, \u201coh, dear, she doesn\u2019t like this, we\u2019d better put her back in.\u201d \u00a0To the contrary, we\u2019re pleased. A robust cry means good health. So thorough is our understanding that the fetus-suddenly-turned-infant will object to birth that if she doesn\u2019t, we worry. That\u2019s a danger sign of poor health.<\/p>\n Of course, this isn\u2019t what people who use the term \u201cforced birth\u201d mean. They\u2019re referring to the mother. But here again, the term is odd. What pregnant woman wants to remain pregnant indefinitely? I kept reminding myself at the last stage of my pregnancy that the kid was a heck of a lot easier to care for inside than outside my womb. It didn\u2019t matter. I really did want to get to birth. I daresay it would be hard to find a pregnant woman that wouldn\u2019t find birth a better idea than keeping the baby inside endlessly.<\/p>\n Again, that\u2019s not what they mean. What they mean is that they believe it\u2019s not actually a birth if the baby comes out earlier and dead instead of later and alive. But they won\u2019t say it that bluntly.<\/p>\n Historically, childbirth could be dangerous enough that a midwife had to choose between mother and child. Fortunately, medicine has come a long way.<\/p>\n There are millions of pro-life women, so there are large numbers who have faced life-threatening pregnancies. We have every bit as much of an interest in medical care for these situations as everyone else.<\/p>\n Here are some situations where pregnancy might endanger the mother\u2019s life:<\/p>\n Ectopic Pregnancy<\/strong><\/p>\n The embryo never gets to the fetal stage, but is stuck outside the womb, usually in the Fallopian tubes. That baby has to be removed immediately, and won\u2019t survive the process. She wouldn\u2019t survive if left where she is either. There is no viable pregnancy.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, women who are heartbroken for the baby are a lot better off having pro-life doctors<\/a> who can sympathize with them.<\/p>\n Miscarriage<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a bit confusing that the medical term for miscarriage is \u201cspontaneous\u201d abortion. So we need to say induced<\/em> abortion is the practice we object to.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not the medical procedures involved in induced abortion that are the problem. It\u2019s using those procedures to kill the baby. If the baby is already dead, then of course those procedures may be needed to clear out the corpse that isn\u2019t coming out on its own.<\/p>\n Again, many women truly need doctors to be sympathetic that a baby died; treating the child as mere medical waste can be cruel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Medical Care for the Mother that Endangers the Baby<\/strong><\/p>\n Conditions such as cancer or diabetes require careful management. But the baby isn\u2019t going to do well without a healthy mother, and getting needed medical care isn\u2019t an induced abortion nor an attempt to injure the child.<\/p>\n When the Pregnancy Endangers the Mother and the Baby is Old Enough to Survive<\/strong><\/p>\n An emergency C-section takes about an hour. Inducing labor could take a few hours. The normal late-term abortion is a two-day procedure due to the need to dilate the cervix. Getting the baby out dead rather than alive isn\u2019t better for the mother\u2019s biological health.<\/p>\n In the case of a partial-birth abortion, they start the birth process and then pause it to punch a hole in the kid\u2019s skull. How can pausing in the middle possibly be better for the mother\u2019s biological health than just pulling the baby out without delay?<\/p>\n If a C-section or induced labor isn\u2019t ideal for the baby because she\u2019s coming out too soon, then that\u2019s a circumstance to take into account when assessing the medical situation. But of course it\u2019s important to save the mother\u2019s life, and to try to save the baby\u2019s too. If it can\u2019t be done, then if medical care is competent at least there was no deliberate attempt to kill the baby.<\/p>\n The Baby\u2019s Going to Die Soon, But Hasn\u2019t Yet<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the one that\u2019s tricky, and the one that has the most horror stories in the press. But again, separating the child from the mother so she doesn\u2019t threaten her mother\u2019s life is intending to save someone\u2019s life, not intending to kill a child. As with euthanasia<\/a>, which can also be quite tricky, intention matters.<\/p>\n And to those doctors who\u2019ve been talked about in the mainstream press\u2019s horror stories because they\u2019re afraid of the local prosecutor if they do competent medical care in these situations, I say: fear more the malpractice suit.<\/p>\n Remember, pregnant pro-life women will find themselves in such dire circumstances at roughly the same rate as other pregnant women. And activist women are all the more likely to file malpractice suits.<\/p>\n Finally: When the Claim is Actually a Trick<\/strong><\/p>\n Why do legislators often take a strict and skeptical view about the \u201clife-of-the-mother\u201d exception? In pre-Roe days, it was often a loophole, a bold-faced lie, for doing any abortions at all.<\/p>\n I\u2019d say that actually, medical personnel who try to use a life-of-the-mother exception as a dishonest cover for any abortions don\u2019t need so much to fear the local prosecutor, who\u2019d have a hard time making a case. Those personnel need to fear the women to whom they\u2019re giving abortions.<\/p>\n Women who\u2019ve had abortions have been joining the pro-life movement in droves all along. Pro-life conferences commonly have women telling their abortion stories \u2013 negatively, of course. Therapy groups for women who were traumatized by their abortions are a major part of what the pro-life movement does.<\/p>\n This is one of the major reasons pro-lifers keep saying we don\u2019t want women prosecuted<\/a> for obtaining abortions: we\u2019re practically the lobby group for those women with negative experience.<\/p>\n And we know very well that these women are the ones who are most crucial to enforcing the laws. They have the needed knowledge, and once they join the pro-life movement, they have the motivation.<\/p>\n ====================================<\/p>\n See also the\u00a0Dublin Declaration on Maternal Health Care<\/a>,\u00a0signed by over 1,000 ob-gyns.<\/p>\n For similar posts, see: <\/em><\/p>\n If Men Could Get Pregnant<\/a><\/p>\n What Do Men Have to Say on Abortion?<\/a><\/p>\n No Combat Experience, No Opinion: Parallels in Pro-bombing and Pro-choice Rhetoric<\/a><\/p>\n How Abortion is Useful for Rape Culture<\/a><\/p>\n A Pro-Life Feminist Critique of the \u201cRape and Incest Exception”<\/a><\/p>\n Abortion Facilitates Sex Abuse: Documentation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-blog-pregnant-woman.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nForced Birth?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat if the Choice is – Which One Gets to Live?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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