Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Unwanted Pregnancy, Mercy, and Solidarity
Over the last half century, United States debates about abortion focused at first on the question whether the fetus is a person with rights and later on whether involuntary conceptionfor instance, as a consequence of sexual assaultmight mitigate a woman's responsibilities toward the fetus she...
| Published in: | Journal of religious ethics |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2018]
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| In: |
Journal of religious ethics
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| Further subjects: | B
Pregnancy
B Pope Francis B interruptibility B Catholic Church B moral failure B Solidarity B Mercy B Abortion B epikeia B structural evil B Lisa Tessman B Moral Harm |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Over the last half century, United States debates about abortion focused at first on the question whether the fetus is a person with rights and later on whether involuntary conceptionfor instance, as a consequence of sexual assaultmight mitigate a woman's responsibilities toward the fetus she carries. This article argues that, whatever one's position on these two questions, a third, morally salient dimension of most US women's experiences of unwanted pregnancy deserves more attention: both abortion and birth burden women with their inevitable moral failure to fulfill their responsibilities to persons who frequently have de facto last-resort and unavoidable claims on them. Using Lisa Tessman's work on moral failure and Pope Francis's interventions on abortion and mercy, I argue that this moral anguish is not a simple emotional remainder. Structural evil, not necessity, is the primary driver of forced pregnancy choices that injure women and their children both materially and morally. Consequently, whether they abort or carry to term, women with unwanted pregnancies need mercy or forgiveness. But they also need compassionate solidarity: prophetic, active efforts to transform the social structures that make material harm and moral failure, and consequent moral anguish and moral injury, inevitable for many pregnant women. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9795 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jore.12240 |