#2: Humans are Relational<\/strong><\/p>\nA pregnant woman is not in a bubble by herself. There is the child\u2019s father. There are her parents, his parents, siblings, friends, coworkers, and the list goes on. The reality is that we are all a part of a relational community whether we realize it or not.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to pregnancy, a child is inextricably physically and relationally linked to her mother.<\/p>\n
We have no trouble recognizing this connection after a child is born. We acknowledge that parents have duties, legal duties, to at least provide their children the basic necessities of life and hopefully much more in terms of physical and relational needs. We don\u2019t base this duty on the parent\u2019s consenting to take on that duty, nor are they able to revoke consent on a whim. Rather, we recognize a child\u2019s dependence on their parents as placing special obligations on the stronger party.<\/p>\n
This is because humans are relational creatures. At our very core, and most starkly from our earliest moments of existence, we depend on those around us. And others rely on us. How do we treat these relationships? Are they extinguishable based on our choice? Or are they something to respect and value?<\/p>\n
This is where Bachiochi gets into relational feminism which posits that we are \u201cfundamentally embedded in relationships of interdependence.\u201d This theory rejects the modern view of humans as radically autonomous individuals and argues that the interdependent relationships we have are not to be scorned, but respected. Quoting one feminist, she says: \u201cWe are born into some obligations, and some are born to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abortion ignores this relational reality. It ignores the fact that whether a mother chose it or not, she is relationally interconnected with her child. Abortion ruptures that connection with fatal consequence to the more dependent party. That is a tragedy. The fact that abortion restrictions act to protect the more dependent party is a good thing for both the child and the woman. Whether or not we always enjoy the relationships around us, we cannot ignore them.<\/p>\n
In no way does Bachiochi suggest this is always easy for women. She points out that it \u201cmay not lessen the hardship of bearing yet another child, or a first child before one feels prepared.\u201d But the alternative is to ignore that we are physical and relational humans. The pro-life movement is well versed in the cost of ignoring the pre-born child\u2019s humanity. And there is most definitely a cost in ignoring women\u2019s humanity.<\/p>\n
Abortion might seem to make women more like men, but at the cost of her humanity. You cannot deny the female biology and the reality of the relational context around and within her without dire consequences.<\/p>\n
But opening up to the reality of what it means to be a human \u2013 and what it means to be a woman \u2013 opens you up to all that this life has to offer. As Bachiochi describes, \u201cIn the experience of most women, pregnancy is a serious challenge, but one well worth the sacrifices made because of the profundity of the enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re in the pro-life movement because we believe in human rights. HUMAN rights. Not hypothetical rights. Not ignore-what-it-means-to-be-human rights. But humans-with-bodies-and-relationships-rights. Human rights \u2013 with all the joy, the hardship, and the profound beauty that accompanies being a human.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re humans. Being human means there are certain observable realities about us. In many debates some of the most basic realities of who and what we are seem to get lost in favor of a theoretical idea of what some would like us to be. But whether your philosophy likes it or not, we are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3014,"featured_media":4155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[281,284,322],"tags":[79,765,551,200,315],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3014"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4158,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154\/revisions\/4158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}