Potential

feminism, feminist, pregnant, law, mandatory, testing, abortion, prochoice, prolife,
Rob asks: If people are so concerned about preventing the embryo from fulfilling its potential, wouldn't forced parenthood prevent the woman from fulfilling her potential?

answer 1: in the real world, yes. that's why people tend to get upset about girls in high school having babies. very, very few of them end up graduating from college. it requires a tremendous support system and a great deal of determination.

answer 2: there's another world out there, Rob. a world in which i have no value. none at all. presumably, you find me to be valuable in some small way. you bother to read what i write, and are inspired to comment on it, so you must find some value in me. others do not. not because they don't enjoy my writing, but because i have a uterus.

children, as you have noted, are ultimately important. more important than anything else. however, once a girl reaches child bearing age, in this world, she ceases to have any value at all. her only value is in her ability to incubate babies, which is no value at all, really. any mammal can do that.

imagine a world in which you have no value outside of your uterus. you have no control over your own body. your thoughts, dreams, desires are all of no consequence at all. you are exactly the same as a dog used to breed purebred puppies for sale.

consider laws that have been proposed concerning adult citizens of the US. recently, a law was proposed to make it mandatory to test women for alcohol and drug use if they did not receive prenatal care in the first trimester or had a premature birth for no discernable reason.

think about that one for a second. firstly, it is not illegal for women to drink alcohol. secondly, it is common for women not to realize they are pregnant until the second trimester. i know 2 women in the last year for whom this was the case. (most women don't really "show" until the second trimester, and a lot of women get what seems to be their period during the first trimester. some women get it the entire pregnancy.) i know at least one of these women is a social drinker, so she certainly was drinking while pregnant. (this happens a lot, too. her baby is fine.)

i begin to see why it is common for certain groups to marry young, after a short acquaintance. if the only possible value of a women is her ability to breed, what difference does it make who she is? who cares about her personality? talents don't matter, because breeding doesn't require talent.

if you want to see where this sort of thinking eventually leads, i suggest checking out The Handmaid's Tale. or the holocaust.