SOSC 1350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Antifeminism, Douche, Fetal Rights
20 Mar 2016
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I would suggest that we reevaluate the adversarial and individualistic perspective that pits the fetus against the pregnant woman and makes the physician or the father or the state the fetus"s advocate. We need to step back from the isolationist picture that fails to understand the social context in which women gestate and deliver their babies. We could consider the idea that protecting and caring for the fetus means protecting and caring for the pregnant woman through adequate housing, nutrition, education, medical care and freedom from physical and emotional abuse. Genuinely respecting fetal life would require genuinely respecting women. Christine overall: birth control, abortion and the law, women healers (or lay practitioners) and midwives (mostly female) Women provided birth control, abortions were provided by women, and women taught other women how to do these things: british law and quickening (1803) Abortion became illegal (first in common law tradition)
