Lifestyle Threshold

Lifestyle Threshold

Susan Bordo, in her piece Unbearable Weight, poses a provocative question, are mothers persons? The context of this question comes down to ideology that is still in question today. Bordo primarily focuses her piece on the rights of fetuses in contrast to the rights of pregnant women and the legal and social power that the fetus has over a woman. Bordo suggests that the rights of the fetus supersedes the agency and consent of a pregnant woman's body even though legal precedent gives men and women consent and agency but once a woman becomes pregnant these rights no longer apply. Bordo additionally briefly touches on the idea that women should have total agency over their lifestyle, and that we shouldn’t create laws that police the lifestyle choices of pregnant women such as drinking, smoking, and doing drugs . Bordo argues that in policing these behaviors we take agency away from pregnant women. But while Bordo argues for total rights of a pregnant woman, it's hard to not find question or fault in some of her logic. Giving total agency to pregnant women could be problematic.

At first glance when reading Bordo’s article, the fundamental question of women having total agency over their bodies was obvious to me, yes. But then as I read further into Bordo’s piece her lifestyle examples of pregnant women put me at tension with myself.

Do we allow pregnant women to engage in behaviors like drugs, alcohol, and certain jobs that could endanger the fetus, that the women plans to carry to term, or do we allow women total agency over their bodies? This was the question that put me at odds with myself.

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Bordo says that we cannot police a pregnant woman for having one drink because it won’t cause fetal-alcohol syndrome. And while Bordo is suggesting that very moderate risks women take like smoking weed or taking a sip of wine every once in awhile can be safe for the fetus it creates a slippery slope. Is there a threshold where we as a society step in and say no to a certain amount of drinks or to a certain amount of drugs or to a certain type of job? Or do we give women total agency?Do we allow a woman total agency to give their child fetal alcohol syndrome? Do we ignore the fact that the fetus will eventually be born as a child? Do we only focus on the present? Bordo suggest that  “the courts literally managing the lives of pregnant women and extensively intruding into their daily activities” is dangerous. But is it? I think there is a certain point where we as society must step in.

This example from the Atlantic details a mother who was punished for her lifestyle choice :Jailed for Using Drugs While Pregnant. The mother took Valium while pregnant and told her health care provider and was then jailed for 18 days and charged with child-abuse. The article shows the complexities of laws wanting to protect the health of a fetus but failing to actually provide any way to alter this lifestyle choice such as through education or access to services.  Instead the law simply punishes the pregnant woman.

The Atlantic article brings up many of the the questions I have too:

“What is the best way to protect a baby or fetus if the mother is engaging in behaviors considered to be risky, like drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs? Is it appropriate for law enforcement to intervene when mothers are not having a healthy pregnancy—and if so, where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable risk? Are these fetal-protection laws effectively anti-abortion laws?”

If we do want to stop this type of behavior as a society, what is the best way to go about it? Is it through law or social services? While social services would be the most constructive option to educate and help pregnant women through rehab, counseling, and other services these types of options are not available to women in all classes or geographic locations. So if these social services cannot reach all pregnant women what is the next best option? Creating law as a deterrence? I doubt this would act as deterrence but few other options exist on a large scale. I'm not there is a way to a good way to address in our current system, it seems to come down to the individual community that these women live in and what services they can afford to offer.

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This piece written by Bordo in 1993 is still relevant today because we are still not at a point in society where we can agree if women should have total agency over their bodies and how to protect a fetus without criminalizing the mother. Bordo’s article brings to light the question of total agency when pregnant. This article has caused me to question my threshold of agency of pregnant women because I do not believe they should be able to risk the cognitive functions or physical abilities of the fetus if they plan to carry it to full term. And while criminalizing pregnant women is not the best option to stop them from engaging in these behaviors maybe it is the only current structural system we have in society to address these issues.

Citations:

Calhoun, Ada. (2015). Jailed for Using Drugs while Pregnant. Retrieved from: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/a-win-against-prenatal-protection-laws-in-wisconsin/410131/

Bordo, Susan. (1993). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.