Call It What You Will

The following is a ChoiceUSA cross-post.
-------------

In her 2008 book Abortion and Life, author and activist Jennifer Baumgardner recounts a situation that led her to take a more critical approach to the language surrounding abortion:

"I had my own moment of truth during my fifth month of pregnancy ... I was speaking to a group of Barnard College's Students for choice when I referred to that object in one's uterus when one is pregnant as a 'baby.'

"A nurse practitioner who was speaking after me interrupted: 'Fetus, you mean. You said baby, but it's a fetus.'

"'Oh, right,' I stammered, blushing. 'Oops.' I felt foolish, caught in an ignorant mistake. Later, though, I realized that I had always thought of my pregnancy as carrying a baby -- that was the word I wanted to use -- and I was forcing myself to say 'fetus' out of fear. If I said 'baby,' that meant I wasn't pro-choice, or with the program, or knowledgeable."

As is usually the case, I found myself nodding fiercely while reading Baumgardner's take on the situation.  She was pregnant herself, thought of her fetus as a baby, and was completely caught off guard when she was basically accused of anti-choice pandering because of a simple word choice.  Now obviously, context might have dictated that "fetus" was a better word for Baumgardner to use in this scenario, but her point stands: why does it matter?

I don't think anyone could question Baumgardner's merit as a pro-choice activist.  After all she's done for reproductive freedom (and the feminist movement at large), the NP's correction of her language was probably less of an accusation about her beliefs and more of a clarification on what she was talking about.  But again we must ask, why does it matter what she chooses to call her own pregnancy?

As a birth doula, I don't use the term "fetus" unless I'm using it as part of  a technical term like "fetal heart monitoring" or "fetal position."  (Unless, of course, I happened to be working for a woman who used that term herself, but honestly, when have you ever heard of a pregnant woman calling her someday-baby a "fetus?")  It's not my job to make a political case out of one family's situation, so why would I go out of my way to use a clinical term when I'm not a clinician?  I can imagine how that would sound: "We can get the fetus into a better position for birth if we move this way."  "You're doing wonderfully, you'll be meeting your fetus in no time!"  "Lovely work, mama, just let that fetus descend through the pelvis."  Technically, this language is accurate, but think of how cold and distant it would sound to an expectant mother!

In referring to her own body, Jennifer Baumgardner has every right to call her pregnancy what she wants to call it.  If we're pro-choice, shouldn't we embrace that decision as well?  We all know it's a "fetus" or an "embryo" (depending on the stage of pregnancy).  That's not the point.  The point is, if women have the right to own their bodies, they have the right to call it what they will.  Correcting a pregnant woman when she calls it a "baby" is no better than the antis forcing the terms "life" and "baby" down the throats of vulnerable women when they're considering abortion.  Sure, we may have the medical terms on our side, but the pro-choice fight isn't just a fight for medical science, it's a fight for people and for self-realization.  The right to realize oneself as a mother at the moment of implantation is as important as the right to never realize oneself as a mother at all.

It is understandable that many advocates for choice might be turned off by anyone using a non-technical term for a pregnancy.  After all, such language has become a staple of our movement.  "It's an embryo, it's a fetus, etc."  These short statements provide concise counter-arguments in moments where you aren't likely to delve into the big, deep questions about fetal life and its value versus the life and will of its carrier.  In a wholly political context, terms like "embryo" and "fetus" are technically accurate and therefore kosher. But for individual cases where a woman's pregnancy comes up in conversation, choice advocates should remain open to co-opting the language of the woman, viewing the pregnancy as she views it, and allowing her to choose for herself what it is she's carrying in her belly.