Pro-life advocates typically say abortions kill babies. Whether you are a Pro-life or Pro-choice, do you agree that terminating a pregnancy is killing a baby?
I added a poll because I really am only curious about this one aspect of the argument.
My personal opinion is that a fetus grows in a womb until born a baby and able to survive on it's own outside the womb (including NICU machines). Basically when a woman terminates a pregnancy the procedure affects a fetus, not a baby.
88 votes
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
I miscarried early in pregnancy, and to me I lost my baby, not just a fetus. That being said, I'm still pro choice.
cantaloupe / 6800 posts
I voted "Fetus, I am Pro-Choice". I think a 12 week or less pregnancy is a fetus, and anything beyond that is a baby. Technically it is a fetus until you give birth, but that's just how I picture it in the womb. Of course I call my 8 week old fetus a baby, because I intend on carrying it and nurturing it, and to me that is a baby, a baby I am excited to have. I'm confusing myself, ha!
In my state a regular abortion can be done up to 9 weeks, and one that requires surgery is legal until 24 weeks.
I wouldn't have an abortion past 9 weeks personally. I can't say that I much approve of someone getting one at 24 weeks for a reason other than medical, but I don't feel anyone should be able to stop those women who chose to.
I just want to add that I see both sides of the argument and understand both sides reasoning and like @artbee: I had a miscarriage and am still very very much pro-choice.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
I really hope this post does not offend some of the wonderful women of this group that have lost BABIES. Real babies that they held, that have names, that they carried, and kicked and moved in their bellies. Those were BABIES.
Pro-choice or Pro-Life I personally feel it is disrespectful for the women that have lost children to not call their losses babies just because they didn't breath air.
watermelon / 14206 posts
With my recent loss, even though I lost her at 39 weeks, I still have a Certificate of Fetal Demise, rather than a birth/death certificate, cause she never took a breath. So, according to the medical/government world, it's not a baby until it takes a breath.
Now, that being said, *I* consider her to be a baby.
Although, I had a miscarriage at 6 weeks, and felt like I lost a baby, then, too. But, maybe it's just me feeling like I lost my *chance* at having a baby for the early one.
I think once there's a heartbeat, there's a soul, and hence a baby.
pineapple / 12526 posts
I voted baby, I am pro-choice.
I am pro-choice... simply because I feel like I shouldn't be telling another grown woman what to do. I also FIRMLY believe that making abortions illegal would not stop them from happening. Women would just go back to getting them in back alleys.
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
@T.H.O.U.: I am so sorry for the personal loss you are going through at this time. My intent is not to offend you or any other moms or women with my question or the part I wrote about my personal opinion. My mom had a son and I had a brother from the moment she found out she was pregnant not just when I was holding her hand in the delivery room. I get that.
bananas / 9899 posts
I think we call it a fetus or a baby depending on what we personally decide it is. If you want the child, it's a baby. If you're getting an abortion, it's a fetus.
watermelon / 14206 posts
@T.H.O.U.: @Mrs. Lemon-Lime: It doesn't offend me at all. In fact, these deep conversations feel better to me than the superficial ones that spew up from enduring a loss.
cantaloupe / 6800 posts
@pui: Yes! Very well said, that is what I was trying to say but I couldn't word it properly
honeydew / 7909 posts
I am pro-life and I think the term fetus is just a stage of growth... fetus, baby, toddler, adolescent, adult... etc. That being said, I consider my miscarriage the loss of a baby. We call the baby growing in my belly just that... a baby. I also consider terminating a pregnancy killing a 'baby' and that is because a fetus, in my opinion, is a baby... Just like @katiew92081 said, once there is a heartbeat, there is a soul and therefore is a baby.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
I consider both my miscarriages to be the loss of a fetus. The fetus grows into a baby around viability, in my head. Mostly, though, I consider it a loss pregnancy. I couldn't and didn't mourn for it the way I would have had it been a baby. It was different to me, even though both were wanted. Still fetuses. Feti? Dunno.
But that is how I look at it, and if another woman says her loss is a baby and not a fetus, I totally get that. If that is how you view your own pregnancy, who am I to say it's not right?
I also use the term fetus endearingly, though. I'll still refer to mine as a "silly fetus" sometimes. It's hard to think of her as a baby when she's still inside...it's like I can't process it until she's out. Fetus is not a bad or demeaning word, though.
pomelo / 5178 posts
I guess I am an other, but not because I use a different term. I prefer the term fetus (used it with my own pregnancies, etc...) but it seems to have a negative (too cold or scientific or something?) connotation for a lot of people, so I usually say "baby" when I'm talking to others. I guess which term I actually use depends on context and intention and who I'm talking to at the time.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
@honeybee, i do that, too! I don't want people to think I'm minimizing THEIR pregnancy by asking about the fetus vs. the baby!
GOLD / papaya / 10206 posts
I voted other because I just don't know how I feel. I'm completely pro-choice. But the second I saw that line, I kept thinking, "I'm growing a baby".
pear / 1570 posts
This is a really interesting discussion. I say baby from the start because to me it is a new life the second sperm/egg meet. I voted pro-life because while I do think that women should have a choice about their bodies, I think that it is taken too lightly. I know women who have had multiple abortions due to their lack of using contraception. To me, when you decided to not use contraception, you made your choice. On the other hand in cases of rape, incest etc. I do think that women should not have to bear that burden if they don't want to. Such an emotion filled topic!
I find the poll fascinating with regard to fetus/baby and even more fascinating that all of us pro-lifers refer to an unborn as a baby. Curious to see as you get more responses!
coconut / 8681 posts
I'm pro-life and it's a baby to me. I feel even mire convicted about this since going through miscarriages and a successful pregnancy.
honeydew / 7230 posts
I'm really conflicted on this one. I'm extremely pro-choice and used to think "a bundle of cells is a fetus not a baby." However, since TTC (desperately, for years) I know that the second I get pregnant I will consider it my baby. And should anything happen once I do get pregnant (god forbid) I will feel like I lost my child. Generally, I don't really think life begins with conception, but at the same time I sort of think it does. I know this makes no sense! I think my views on it are evolving. 
(Still pro-choice though and will never be anything but.)
GOLD / cantaloupe / 6703 posts
It's a baby. I'm in the "life starts at conception" camp and am pro-life. When we miscarried, it was our baby that was lost, even though it had never taken a breath, never felt it move, wasn't viable, it was still our baby.
pear / 1837 posts
I think of my own pregnancies as fetuses (the one we lost at 13 weeks was a fetus, the one that turned into my 2 year old son was a fetus till he was born, and the one I'm currently carrying is a fetus). I'm in the minority, and I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here, but I don't feel like I miscarried a baby- it wasn't a baby to me, it was a fetus.
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
I think my opinions on this have changed. I'd still say fetus until viability (24 weeks). That being said, I wouldn't feel comfortable getting an abortion after there is a heartbeat. I'm very very pro-choice.
grapefruit / 4681 posts
Baby - pro-life
@pui: Well said! Couldn't agree with that statement more.
watermelon / 14467 posts
Baby. I am personally pro-life, but I support a women's right to choose.
GOLD / wonderful olive / 19030 posts
@pui: I agree 100%.
I am Pro-Choice, as I believe a woman should have the right to choose within reason. Banning abortion will not stop it from happening, it will just be done in an unsafe and non sterile environment like it was in the 50s/60s.
I think that to me my child was always a baby, however to someone who has made the choice to terminate her pregnancy it might be easier for her to refer to it by fetus as it seems a little less emotional.
GOLD / grapefruit / 4007 posts
I am pro life and voted baby. As I sit here and hold my little boy I cannot say he wasnt my baby at conception. I heard his heartbeat at 6 weeks. He has and always will be my baby and I believe that his life began at conception !
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
The medical term is fetus until birth. Call it what you will, but that's the technical term.
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