Fetal Discourses and the Politics of the Womb

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Fetal Discourses and the Politics of the WombAuthor(s): Michael Lim TanSource: Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 12, No. 24, Supplement: Abortion Law, Policy andPractice in Transition (Nov., 2004), pp. 157-166Published by: Reproductive Health MattersStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3776127 .Accessed: 30/04/2011 20:59

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? 2004 Reproductive ealthMatters. ll rights reserved.Reproductive ealthMatters 004;12(24 upplement): 57-166

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REPRODUCTIVE

HEALTHmatters

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FetalDiscourses nd the Politics f the WombMichael im Tan

Chairperson, epartment f Anthropology, ollege f SocialSciences nd Philosophy,University f the Philippines, uezonCity,Philippines. -mail:[email protected]

Abstract: Discourse n abortion rights nevitably entres on the fetus, and is often framed aroundthe dichotomy of "pro-life" s."pro-choice" ositions. Thisdichotomy s not, however, he onlyframework o discuss abortion; oncerns about the fetus have found varied xpression n theological,legal and medical constructs. Thisarticle examines discourses n the fetus from the Philippines, ranand the United States, to show how complex they can be. It examines aws punishing abortioncompared o laws punishing the murder of children, and also looks at the effects of ultrasound,amniocentesis and stem cell research on anti-abortion discourse. Although the fetus figuresprominently n much legal discourse, t actually figures ess prominently n popular discourse, atleast in the English nd Philippine anguages, where terms ike "child" nd "baby" re used far moreoften. Finally, he article highlights the need to examine the experiences and narratives f womenwho have had abortions, and the implications or public policies and advocacy. t is important oexpose the way anti-abortion groups manipulate popular culture and women's experience, drivinghome their messages through fear and guilt, and to show that pregnant women often decideon abortion n order o defend their family's ight to survive. ? 2004 Reproductive Health Matters.All

rightsreserved.

Keywords: abortion rights, contraception nd unwanted pregnancy, nti-abortion groups, religion,reproductive ights, Iran, Philippines, United States

M UCH of the discourse in western coun-tries around abortion rights, in theUnited States (US) in particular, has

revolved around the dichotomy of "pro-life"and "pro-choice" positions. In this configura-tion, support for abortion rights is mainlyequated with the idea that abortion is awoman's right to choose, a right closely tiedto their rights over their bodies. Anti-abortiongroups, on the other hand, proclaim themselvesas "pro-life" in an effort to project the otherside as being "anti-life", life here referring onlyto that of the fetus.

While this pro-life vs. pro-choice frameworkis an important one, there are other discourses*around abortion rights, shaped by differentsocial and historical circumstances. This article

reviews the pro-life vs. pro-choice framework asdeveloped in the US and compares it with other

discourses and frameworks rom the Philippinesand Iran, to show how these have evolved andhad an impact on abortion rights. The US waschosen because this is where the pro-life vs. pro-choice framework remains the strongest, eventhough as an argument t is fraying at the edges.It is important to look at how old frameworksare being questioned, even as they are re-appropriated hrough new labels such as "pro-choice conservatives".1

*"Discourse" n this article refers not just to what is saidor printed what some researchers would call "text" -but also to the whole range of images that are created,invoked and evoked by different stakeholders n theincreasingly complex debates around abortion. Theseimages are found throughout popular culture, from

folklore to advertising, as well as in more formal andcodified forms, such as laws and public policies.

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The Philippines was chosen because of itspeculiar colonial history, having been underSpain from the 16th to the 19th century, duringwhich Catholicism was introduced. Catholicismremains the

professed religionof about 85%

of the population and church leaders continueto wield tremendous political clout, especiallyin relation to issues of sexuality. Followingthe Spanish colonial period, the Philippines wasoccupied by the US from 1898 to 1946. Americaninfluence also remains strong in terms of politi-cal institutions and processes. In the area ofsexuality, it is curious that the American Reli-gious Right, mainly identified with evangelicalProtestants, have found allies among FilipinoCatholic conservatives. Their impact on the dis-course and policies on abortion n the Philippinesis also described n this article.

Iran is included to offer a counterpoint inrelation to the interactions between the legalsystem and a powerful Islamic tradition in theframing of abortion discourses and the law onabortion. This provides a basis for comparisonwith the zeal of the Religious Right withregard to abortion in both the Philippines andthe US.

Fetal rights, children's ightsThis article is based on a newspaper article Iwrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.1 t wasinspired by the work of Iranian lawyer andhuman rights activist Shirin Ebadi, who receivedthe 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts toreform her country's laws. A large part ofEbadi's activism has been to expose the con-tradictions in Iran's family laws. Her work pro-vides activists in many countries with an

important model for analysing laws to decon-struct culture, o bring out its problematic aspectsand propose alternatives.

Ebadi has examined laws to do with the fetus,which she then contrasts with those relating tochildren. In a 1997 article entitled "On the legalpunishment for murdering one's child", Ebadiwrote: "If a man helps a woman have an abortionwhich would result in the death of the embryo,he will be sentenced to three to six months'imprisonment; on the other hand, if that very

same embryois not

killedand lives to become

a 14-year-old boy or girl, and the father killshim or her intentionally, that brutal father will

receive a less severe punishment" of bloodmoney with discretionary punishment that canbe as light as one lash of a whip.2

If a woman causes an abortion in herself, shehas to

payblood

moneybut is not

imprisoned,which Ebadi describes as a more compassionateattitude. The blood money to be paid depends onthe stage of pregnancy:* a fertilised sperm placed in the womb: 20 din-

nars* a fertilised egg which has blood: 40 dinnars* an early embryo: 60 dinnars* a fetus which has grown bones but not mus-

cular tissue: 80 dinnars* a fetus whose bone and muscular tissue has

fully developed but lacks a soul: 100 dinnarsEbadi does not explain how "ensoulment" s

determined but apparently, if the fetus is con-sidered to have acquired a soul, then the bloodmoney to be paid is equivalent to that paid foran adult. As with adults, however, the embryo'svalue is gender-based - female embryos, likeadult women, only deserve half the blood moneypaid for males.

Thus, he laws of Iran give more protection o theembryo or fetus than to children already born.

In a 2002 forum on children's rights, Ebadi isquoted as saying: "Under the penal code, if agirl of nine and a boy of fifteen commit a crime,they are punished as adults... If the same boy orgirl participates in a children's painting com-petition and wins, they would need to obtaintheir father's permission to receive a passport fortravel... At the same time, we see that the sameboy or girl cannot participate in elections as avoter. On the other hand, a lady at the age of 40,who is, for example, a university professor and

wants to marry for the first time, needs herfather's permission to do so:"3Such inequities in the law are certainly not

limited to Iran. Similar inconsistencies can befound, for example, in the Philippines, arounddefinitions and penalties for abortion and murder.

Articles 256 to 259 of the Philippine PenalCode4 have detailed provisions on penalties forabortion as severe as imprisonment from 12 to20 years for someone who uses violence to inducean abortion n a woman.

UnderPhilippine aw,

Article 246 of the PenalCode provides that a person who kills his or herown child will be tried for parricide, which can

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be punished with life imprisonment. Yet Article247 makes an exception if the death or physicalinjury is inflicted under "exceptional circum-stances" with destierro* prescribed as punish-ment for a

parentwho kills a

daughter (thoughnot a son) if she is below the age of 18, livingwith her parents and is caught having sexualintercourse. The same lighter sentence applies ifthe parent kills the daughter's "seducer" aftercatching them having intercourse.

The contradictions in such laws merely reflectsocial norms, the origins of which may have beenobscured by time. For example, Iran's gradedpenalties for abortion, depending on the stageof fetal development, are drawn from Islamictheological

speculationabout ensoulment, a dis-

course which finds parallels in Christian theol-ogy, and which date even further back to classicalGreek philosophy. Thomas Aquinas and earlyChristian heologians took the Aristotelean viewthat a fetus first acquired a vegetable soul, fol-lowed by an animal soul and finally, a rationalsoul. Abortion before rational ensoulment wasnot considered murder. Christian theologiansadopted the Aristotelean view that animation,somewhat akin to ensoulment, did not take placeuntil 40 days after the

conceptionof a male fetus

and 80 days for a female fetus.6'7The contrast between the elaborate legal pro-

tection of fetuses and the anaemic provisionsfor child murder highlight the powerful ideol-ogies that govern social relations, particularlyin terms of the authority of men over women.These ideologies are expressed more specificallyin terms of the authority of the father over hischildren, especially daughters, and the need toprotect female chastity and family honour, evenat the cost of killing an erring daughter.

Given the heavy legal sanctions for abortionin relation to other laws, and especially in theabsence of heavy punishment for murderingchildren, such abortion laws seem to be linkedmore to upholding male honour and authorityover women and the family, rather than to theprotection of the fetus itself.

*Destierro a Spanish erm) s defined n Article 87 of thePenal Code as a form of banishment or exile. In

effect,destierro s an exemption from punishment due to theenormous provocation considered o be involved.5

From he fetus to the unbornAlthough the fetus figures prominently in muchlegal discourse, it actually figures less promi-nently in popular discourse, at least in the

English and Philippine languages. Terms like"child" and "baby" are used far more often,together with their emotion-laden connotations.Anti-abortion groups are aware of the power ofthese words so it should not be surprising thatthey pass out keychains with a fetus attached,sometimes given names such as Joshua. Themessage is clear: do you want to kill Joshua?To be pro-choice then is not just to be anti-lifebut in an even more terrifying sense, to be anti-baby and anti-child. This imagery is easilylinked to other sensitive social

issues,as shown

in this excerpt from a posting on the Pro-LifePhilippines website:

"The people who cryfor more family reduction/culling/eliminate the 3rd, 4th and 5th childmasquerading as planning', more 'sex mis-education', more 'I hate all men, I hate child-birth, I hate children'feminism, are either in thebusiness of selling contraceptives, misinformed,racist (they see the Filipino people as an inferiorrace), class oppressors (they see poor people asinferior and do not deserve to multiply), or blindfollowers of the dogma of overpopulation."8

Pro-Life Philippines inks the imagery of the fetusto many other social issues, including that ofwomen's bodies. Members of Pro-Life Philip-pines regularly write to newspapers with direwarings about the risks of cancer and other sideeffects from contraception itself. Such warningsare especially serious given that family planningsurveys often show that the fear of contracep-

tive side effects tops the reasons for non-use anddiscontinuation f use.9Research hat I and HealthAction Information Network, a non-governmentorganisation NGO), ave carried out in the Philip-pines on perceptions of contraception have con-sistently shown how strong these fears are, andthat they are picked up from stories told byCatholic church workers.10,11

Not surprisingly, when mifepristone wasapproved as a medical abortion drug in the US,Philippine groups expressed their outrage

through graphicreferences to the womb and the

fetus. Francisco Tatad, a Philippine Senator,described the drug as "the equivalent of a

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miniature chemical bomb detonated inside amother's womb. It is guaranteed to kill thefetus instantly."12

Thus, anti-abortion rhetoric invokes not justthe fetus but also the womb.

Moreover,the

Catholic anti-abortion movement, especially inthe Philippines, goes further and lumps abortionand family planning together as being anti-family. In January 2003, the Philippines hosteda World Congress on Families, which allowedanti-abortion groups to maximise their ownmedia exposure using imagery of fetuses, babiesand children. In one striking example, the orga-nisers of the congress announced that they weregiving delegate status to 42 babies and toddlers,one as young as 10 months old. Manila's Aux-iliary Bishop Socrates Villegas described thesechildren as "the secret powerhouse of the con-gress", and said they were there "to dramatisethe Church's trong stance against abortion andartificial contraception". He is also quoted assaying: "It takes a sick mind to get bothered bythe sight of a baby. The normal mind gets excitedand thrilled to see a baby because every baby is ablessing... There s no baby who enters the worldfrom the womb of the mother as a curse." Thissame bishop lamented that people sometimes"deposit aborted babies" at the EDSA Shrine, achurch under his care.13*

The imagery of fetuses and babies is not con-fined to representations n the media, however.In several cities, Pro-Life Philippines has beenable to convince local government officials toput up monuments to aborted fetuses. In front ofthe Quiapo church, n a central district n Manila,there is a "Shrine o the Unborn" howing a fetuson an outstretched palm with a crucifixionwound, presumably that of Jesus Christ. On

Shaw Boulevard, a busy street in Metro Manila,there is a five-story building that on one wallfacing the street has a painting of Jesus carryingwhat seems to be a fetus but could also be aninfant. A caption under the mural reads: "This sa child, not a choice."

One could argue that images are only images,and perhaps that they have little impact onpeople's actual lives, but these larger-than-

*It s quite ommon orpeople o leaveaborted etuses tthe shrine. suspect his s donebecause t is as close o aChristian urial s they can get.

life representations are only part of a largercampaign by Pro-Life Philippines that has suc-ceeded in adversely affecting policies on familyplanning by describing modem contraceptivesas abortifacients.

In 1995, the Philippines devolved authorityover health services and health policies to localgovernment, opening up new possibilities forthe Religious Right. The result has been disas-trous for family planning. Whenever a pro-lifecity mayor or provincial governor comes topower, he (they have always been men) usuallyprohibits "artificial ontraception" n local healthunits. Invariably, he argument, mainly put for-ward in TV interviews, is that the pill and other"artificial" methods are all abortifacients.

In another instance, Abay-Pamilya, an anti-abortion group affiliated to Pro-Life Philippines,was able to pressure the Health Department towithdraw Postinor, an emergency contraceptivepill. The move was made without public hear-ings and was based on the argument that thedrug was an abortifacient. In reality, emergencycontraception works within the first 72 hoursafter unprotected intercourse, a time when fer-tilisation may or may not have taken place. Theanti-abortion groups argued that because therewas a chance fertilisation had taken place, thedrug would then work as an abortifacient. HealthNGOs came forward demanding the return ofemergency contraception, nvoking the medicaldefinition of pregnancy as starting at the time ofimplantation rather than fertilisation. The legalhearings, a debate on the status of the zygoteand the embryo, have continued and are unlikelyto be resolved n the near future.

Since 2002, still another term, "the unborn",has come into wider usage, with PhilippinePresident Arroyo declaring 25 March 2004 asthe "Day of the Unborn". The choice of date istied to the Catholic feast of the Annunciation,when angels were said to have announced to theVirgin Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus.The President said the day was a way ofpromoting a "culture of defending life from themoment of conception",t and was intended to

tThis is an obvious reference o the Philippines 1987

Constitution14 which states, in Section 12, Article II:"The State shall equally protect he life of the mother andthe life of the unborn rom conception'"

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focus attention on "babies that died during theirmother's pregnancy", with a rather crypticreference to the fact that "3% of fetal deathsrecorded were due to ill-health of pregnantwomen and socio-behavioural factors".15

On the surface, this could be seen as concernfor maternal health. But shortly after Arroyodeclared the "Day of the Unborn", ConradoLimcaoco, her advisor on ecclesiastical andmedia affairs (the combination of the twofunctions is itself revealing), told newspaperreporters that he had read about similar eventsin other countries on Zenit, a conservativeCatholic media service. Limcaoco's own ration-ale for the event was: "As the Philippines is theonly Roman Catholic country in Asia, it is

important that we make a clear stand for thedignity of life and the protection of the unbornwho are unable to protect themselves.'15*

Not surprisingly, Arroyo's "Day of the Un-born" has appeared on the Internet sites of anti-abortion groups, e.g. the Canadian CampaignLife Coalition hailed the declaration of the dayas another example of defending the unborn.16Manila's Mayor Jose Atienza, running for re-election, chose to start his campaign on that day,which he dubbed the "Day of the Unborn Child".

This mayor has been outspoken in his viewsagainst abortion and family planning. He hasbanned artificial contraception from all cityhealth offices, and created a Haven for Angels,which he described in a BBC documentary, Sexand the Holy City, as containing "fetus babieswe find in the streets, garbage...".

The unborn have also taken centre stage in theUS where, on 2 April 2004, President Bush signedthe Unborn Victims of Violence Act. This newfederal law prescribes hat a person who inflicts

violence on a pregnant woman and who thenharms the mother and the fetus can be tried fortwo separate crimes, in effect giving the fetuslegal status. With rhetoric similar to Arroyo's,

*Inpublic debates on moral ssues, ranging rom abortionto nudity n movies, conservatives ften claim he Philip-pines is the "only" Catholic or Christian ountry n Asiaas a reason for the importance of it defending certainvalues. The claim is false. East Timor has a Catholicmajority n its population, while many other Asian coun-tries have large Christian opulations, .g. South Korea.

Bush gave the following rationale for thenew law:

"With this action, we widen the circle ofcompassion and inclusion in our society, and

we reaffirm that the United States of America isbuilding a culture of life."17

Medicine, mbryos and fetusesThe discourse of the womb and the fetus is notnew, as seen in the specific Iranian penal pro-visions relating to the fetus and its stage ofdevelopment. In recent years, advances in medi-cal research, particularly n fetal and reproduc-tive medicine as well as in biotechnology, have

led to new and powerful imagery of the fetus.The 9 June 2003 American edition of News-week had a cover showing a fetus. The coverstory's theme was "Should a fetus have rights?How science is changing the debate". An articleinside entitled "Treating the tiniest patients"described various medical procedures, ncludingsurgery, that can now be performed on fetuses.The article notes: "Twenty-five years ago scien-tists knew little about the molecular and geneticjourney from embryo to full-term fetus. Today,thanks to the biomedical

revolution, they aregaining vast new insights into development,even envisioning a day when gene therapy willfix defects in the womb." Author Claudia Kalbbelieves that "medicine has already grantedunborn babies a unique form of personhood -as patients".18 Kalb focuses on fetal surgerybecause she believes this raises the stakes aroundpolitical, moral and ethical debates:

"The very same tools - amniocentesis andultrasound - that have made it possible todiagnose deformities early enough to terminatea pregnancy are now helping doctors in theirquest to save lives. While fetal surgery is stillrare and experimental, the possibility that afetus that might have died or been aborted tenyears ago might now be saved strikes at the coreof the abortion debate. And these operations alsoraise afundamental question: whose life is moreimportant - the mother's or the child's."'1

It is not surprising that the bioethical debatearound abortion is

rapidly changing.As fetal

surgery can be performed in the womb, andmore premature babies are being kept alive,

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anti-abortionists argue that fetal viability isoccurring earlier in pregnancy, and calling fora reduction in the number of weeks of preg-nancy that abortion should be permitted. The US

SupremeCourt in fact

recentlyhanded down

an opinion that states could prohibit abortionafter viability, which was defined in that judge-ment at 24 weeks of pregnancy.19 However,the scientific evidence is that up to 24 weeksthe survival rate is below 10% and more thanhalf of the few infants that survive show evi-dence of more or less severe physical problemsand learning difficulties. It is only beyond26 weeks that survival chances rapidly increaseabove 500/0 and the rate of handicap amongsurvivors drops below 500/.20

These debates have become even more heatedin relation to stem-cell research, n which humanembryos are being used to develop cell lines thatcan be used to treat diseases such as juvenilediabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.US President Bush is vehemently opposed tosuch research and has banned the use of fed-eral money for research on stem cell lines, anobviously political move which drew praisefrom groups such as Focus on the Family, whosepresident James Dobson hailed Bush as having

"courageously upheld his promise to protectunborn children".21 he attempt to link unbornchildren and stem cells may seem overdone butit is only one example of how overarchingthemes from culture, medicine and politicscome together to challenge advocates for abor-tion rights and, to borrow from Newsweek, theentire "politics of the womb".

Kalb's article on fetal rights in the US beginswith the story of Tracy Marciniak, who five daysbefore her expected delivery, was punched in thestomach by her estranged husband. When Mar-ciniak had herself checked that night in ahospital, doctors could not detect any fetalheartbeat. Marciniak's husband was eventuallyconvicted of reckless injury and sentenced to12 years in prison. He could not be chargedwith homicide because the existing laws applyonly to "born persons". Marciniak eventuallybecame a key figure in the campaign to pass theUnborn Victims of Violence Act. The groupssupporting the Unborn Victims of Violence Acthave been mainly anti-abortion groups, yetMarciniak, at least until her husband's assault,was a supporter of abortion rights.l8

Kalb also interviewed a couple, Pieter andMonica Coenradds, described as devout Catholicswho are strongly opposed to abortion. Yetbecause one of their daughters was diagnosedwith a

debilitating neurologicaldisorder called

Rett syndrome, he Coenradds upport embryonicstem-cell research, which they hope will yieldtherapy for their daughter's illness. The News-week article summarises the paradox:"When abortionfoes are willing to destroy embryos

for life-saving medical research and abortionrights supporters are willing to define a fetus asa murder victim, the black-and-white rhetoric ofthe 1970s' abortion wars no longer applies."18Moreover, use of the Internet is a particularlyintriguing development, especially in the way itcan draw information from the ancient past tohelp stimulate new perspectives o address present-day realities. For example, there is now a websitecalled Answering Islam, with a whole section thatanalyses advances in reproductive medicine, par-ticularly embryology, using interpretations romthe Qu'ran, the Hadith (sayings attributed toMohammed) nd medical research.

Talkingto the fetus

This article has centered on the discourse gen-erated n medicine and law and the way terms arepicked up, particularly by anti-abortion groups,to shape public opinion. People process thesemessages and images in different contexts. Forexample, Americans use both medical terminol-ogy (fetus, embryo) as well as popular terms likebaby and child when talking about a pregnancy.There is a tension in these terms, affected byaspects of research n fetal medicine seeping intopopular consciousness.

In the Philippines, the linguistic distinctionsare different, reflecting a different epistemologyregarding pregnancy. Fetus and embryo areterms familiar only to those who use Englishas a first language, who are a minority. In pop-ular culture, a pregnancy is described quitedifferently. Dugo (blood) is used to refer to thefetus during the first few weeks of pregnancy.During this stage, medicinal plants as well aswestern pharmaceuticals such as misoprostolare described as pampabalik ng regal (restoringmenstruation). This whole phase, too, is referredto as paglilihi, a protracted period of conceiving.

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After the first trimester of pregnancy, womenwill refer to the fetus as bata (child), anak (child)or sanggol (baby).

The use of these terms is not exactly the sameas in the US or other societies, and this is

whyit is

important to conduct research o understand hefull context of the uses of these terms. To this end,Likhaan, a Filipino NGO nvolved in reproductivehealth care, recently released preliminary resultsfrom interviews with women who had had abor-tions.22 They note widespread personification ofthe fetus, where women say they actually talk totheir bata, anak or sanggol as they try to decidewhether they will abort or not. The women'sstories are quite moving, as they try to explain tothe fetus why they have to choose abortion.Striking n their stories is the way the fetuses arepersonified on one hand, but also often describedas sagabal (obstacles). Another account, recordedin 1998 during a research project n the southernPhilippines, was of a mother who described apo-logising to the fetus: "I'm sorry, but I have to dothis so your brothers and sisters can live."

A nationwide study conducted by the Univer-sity of the Philippines Population nstitute23 oundthat economic hardship was cited most often asthe reason for abortion. Likhaan's interviews

showed that while economic factors were also themost important, there were other importantreasons for abortion too: not being able to finishschool, abandonment by the husband or partner,rape, domestic violence and, yes, pregnanciesthat are too many, too soon. The women's storiesshow it is impossible to identify one reason foran abortion. An unmarried secondary schoolstudent will be driven to abort by a mixture offear and shame. A battered wife talks about howshe is beaten up, but finally explains it is the

husband's dependency on alcohol and drugs thatmakes her decide on the abortion, because he isunable to help support the family.

The decision to abort is not a moment intime. Women talk with other women, with theirpartners and with the embryo/fetus. They go tochurch as well, praying for a sign, to have or notto have the abortion. One woman claims she wonP8000 (about US$200 at the time of the inter-view) in a lottery after praying for a sign, moneywhich paid for her abortion.

Likhaanreports

accounts of howhospital staffwould harass women seeking help for abortion

complications, including threats of legal action

or worse. One woman in the Likhaan nterviewsdescribed a woman physician who told her, whenshe was wheeled in bleeding: "You may still bealive, but your soul is now burning in hell." Ifabortion is successful, the woman still has toprepare alibis to use upon her return to thecommunity, since neighbours are often aware ofa pregnancy. And long after the abortion,memories and stories will persist, including themany events that led to the abortion, and thetimes when women talked to the fetus, sometimesright after the abortion.

The paradox here is that while fetuses arepersonified in many cultures, there is a dearthof cultural mechanisms to deal with this per-sonification of the fetus. A notable exception isJapan, where temples offer mizuko kuyo (memo-rial services for water babies), with womenreturning year after year offering incense andprayers for aborted, miscarried and stillbornfetuses. In sharp contrast, the Roman Catholicchurch, despite its strident anti-abortion stand,has no officially prescribed prayers or rituals forfetuses, whether aborted or miscarried. t shouldnot be surprising hat Likhaan's research showedso much agonising in relation to unwantedpregnancies and the tortuous decision-makingprocesses for an abortion.

Implications or advocacy: istening owomen's voicesDeconstructing the imagery around abortion,and understanding ts social and historical con-text, are important for strengthening advocacyand reproductive health services. This is not tosuggest that abortion rights groups ape thetactics of the anti-abortionists, exploiting pop-

ular images and associated emotions aroundfetuses and babies. Instead, advocacy effortsshould draw on women's own descriptions oftheir reproductive ives, their pregnancies andthe circumstances and concerns that lead to adecision to have an abortion. Likhaan, or exam-ple, drawing on their interviews, produced a playcalled Aming Buhay (Our Lives). The play showshow abortion takes on different meanings andtensions for a young unmarried girl as comparedto a middle-aged mother of five. The most

powerful tory s that of a young, unmarried, reg-nant girl facing the fury of her father, who goes onabout having lost their family's honour. When the

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girl's mother comes to her daughter's defence, thefather shifts his wrath to his wife, who had had anabortion many years before."Anak ko 'yan" "Thatwas my child"), he bellows, dramatising the

patriarchalonstruction of the fetus.

Likhaan has produced everal posters that theyhope will encourage a more open and less judge-mental discussion of abortion. One poster reads:"It could be (your) mother, your older sister, acousin or a classmate among the 400,000 womenwho have abortions each year." n another part of

the poster are the stark words: Libong aborsyon.Libong dahilan (Thousands of abortions. Thou-sands of reasons.)

Drawing on women's experiences can andshould include

imagesof the

fetus, recognisingthat in popular culture women do grapple withwhat the fetus means as part of what abortionmeans, and this helps to get around he pro-life vs.pro-choice dichotomy. Some feminists have infact argued against the idea that the fetus iscompletely devoid of value, as this does not

Likhaan poster: 'You don't know because it's not talked about. It can

be your mother, an elder sister, a cousin, a classmate... Thousands ofabortions, housands of reasons. Know. Understand. Don't judge.

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represent many women's experience of unwantedpregnancy and that "fetal value can vary andincrease as pregnancy progresses".24

Whether abortion is legal or not, discoursearound this issue is pervasive, found in popularculture as well as in legal and medical texts. Afocus on women's experiences does not meanmoving away from the politics of the womb. Infact, a focus on the fetus allows an interrogationof the so-called pro-life rhetoric, asking anti-contraception bishops and mayors if they haveever linked the aborted babies that end up in theirgarbage cans or their churches to their own pro-hibition of contraceptive use. The lack of accesshere includes the absence of contraceptive ser-vices, not only in cases where such services havebeen banned, but also social inaccessibility thefear of contraception fanned by anti-abortiongroups that prevents women from using it.

In places like the Philippines, where abortion sillegal, women tell horrendous stories about thepain from catheters inserted in the uterus, painfrom massage by traditional birth attendants andharassment by hospital staff, and speak of feel-ings of fear, guilt and shame, and the consequentneed for social support.22 Anti-abortion groupsdistort hese needs as post-abortion rauma. Thus,

it is important to expose the way anti-abortiongroups manipulate popular culture and women'sexperience, driving home their messages throughfear and guilt and showing how the invocation ofterms ike baby, child and unborn can be manipu-

lative and callous, insensitive to the circum-stances surrounding he need for abortion.

William Saletan, in his book Bearing Right,25points out that even the rhetoric of Americanpro-choice groups, with its emphasis on privacyand individual rights, has been effectively co-opted by anti-abortion groups, who now argueagainst abortion as excessive government inter-ference n matters hat should be kept private andwithin the family. This argument has been used,for example, to argue for parental notificationbefore a minor's abortion, and is an example ofhow concepts of confidentiality and privacy canbe distorted to ends which are the opposite ofwhat the concepts themselves stand for.

The article began by referring to the contra-dictions in the laws of Iran and the Philippines,and the way they seem to be skewed towardsprotection of the embryo and fetus while neglect-ing the rights and needs of living children and ofwomen. This wider analysis of law and policy,and of the discourse surrounding abortion, mustbe developed further for an environment thatwill allow progressive abortion law reform to becreated and the chances of achieving reproduc-tive rights are to change for the better.

AcknowledgementsThe core ideasfor this article were irst developedin an opinion-editorial column entitled "Fetalrights, children's rights" in the Philippine DailyInquirer, 16 December 2003.

References1. Tan ML.Fetal rights, children's

rights. Philippine Daily Inquirer.16 December 003. p.7.

2. Ebadi S. The Legal Punishment

for Murdering One's Child.Nodate. At: . ccessed1 December 003.

3. Conviction of children underthe laws of 78 years ago isbetter han the current aws.At: .Accessed 1 December 2003.

4. Nolledo W, editor. The RevisedPenal Code of the Philippines

with Related Laws.Mandaluyong City: NationalBook Store, 1998.

5. Article 247, RevisedPenal Code.At: . ccessed12 April 2004.

6. Malenschein . Whose View ofLife? Embryos, Cloning andStem Cells. Cambridge MA:Harvard University Press, 2003.

7. Ranke-Heinemann . Eunuchsfor the Kingdom of Heaven:Women, Sexuality, and theCatholic Church. New York:Doubleday, 1990.

8. Religion of overpopulationand contraception xposed.In: Prolife Philippines. At:

. Accessed5 April 2004.

9. National StatisticsOffice.NationalDemographic ndHealthSurvey 1998.Manila:NationalStatisticsOffice,Department fHealth nd Calverton MD:MacroInternational nc, 1999.

10. Health Action InformationNetwork. Transcripts finterviews with family planningacceptors, 1997. (Unpublished)

11. Tan ML. Good Medicines.Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis,University of Amsterdam, 001.

12. Javellana JL. Tatad asks DOHto ban abortion pill. PhilippineDaily Inquirer. October

2000. p.3.13. Nocum AN. 42 babies "secretpowerhouse of congress".

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Philippine Daily Inquirer.23 January 2003. p.1.

14. Nolledo JN. The Family Codeof the Philippines Annotated.Mandaluyong City: National

Bookstore, 1997.15. Torres MT, Ager M. PresidentArroyo declares March 25as "Day of the Unborn".Manila Times. 26 March 2004.

16. Philippine President declaresMarch 25 Day of the Unborn.At: . Accessed5 April 2004.

17. Goldstein A. Bush signs UnbornVictims Act. Washington Post.2

April2004.

p.A04.18. Kalb C.Treating he tiniestpatients. Newsweek.9 June2003. p.48-51.

19. Steinbock B. The pro-choiceview: when can it feelpain? Newsweek. 9 June2003. p.47.

20. Schneider H. [Obstetrical

considerations egardingmarginal etal viability ofvery early premature nfants(in German)]. chweizRundsch Med Prax. 2003;92(13):585-89. FromMedline abstract.)

21. Boehlert E. Fighting tem cells,not terror ells. At: .Accessed9 April 2004.

22. Likhaan. batIbang

Mukhang Aborsyon Differentfaces of abortion]. Manila:Likhaan Transcripts f

ResumeLe discours sur le droit a l'avortement se centreinevitablement sur le foetus et s'inscrit souventautour de la dichotomie des positions ? pour *ou c ontre * l'avortement. Cette dichotomien'est cependant pas le seul cadre de discussion

de l'avortement ; les preoccupations pour lefoetus ont trouve diverses expressions dans desargumentations theologiques, juridiques etmedicales. Cet article etudie le discours sur lefoetus aux Philippines, en Iran et aux Etats-Unis,pour montrer sa complexite. I1 compare les loisqui sanctionnent l'avortement avec les loispunissant le meurtre d'enfants, et s'int6resseaussi aux consequences sur le discours anti-avortement de 'techographie, 'amniocentese etla recherche sur les cellules souches. Si le foetus

figureau centre de

beaucoupde textes

juridiques,sa place est moindre dans le discours populaire,au moins en anglais et en philippin, oi lestermes enfant et be'be sont utilisesbeaucoup plus frequemment. Enfin, l'articlesouligne la necessite d'examiner les experiencesdes femmes qui ont avorte, et les consequencessur les politiques publiques et le plaidoyer. I1faut expliquer comment les groupes anti-avortement manipulent la culture populaire etl'experience des femmes pour vehiculer leursmessages par la peur et la culpabilite, et montrerque les femmes decident souvent d'avorter pourdefendre e droit de leur famille a survivre.

ResumenLa disertaci6n

interviews with eight women,unpublished).

23. Raymundo CM, Zablan ZC,Cabigon JV, et al. UnsafeAbortion n the Philippines:A Threat o Public Health.Quezon City: DemographicResearch and DevelopmentFoundation, 2001.

24. Fletcher R. National crisis,supranational pportunity:the Irish constructionof abortion as a Europeanservice. Reproductive HealthMatters 2000;8(16):35-44.

25. Saletan W. Bearing Right:How Conservatives Wonthe Abortion War. Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress, 2003.

sobre los derechos de abortoinevitablemente se centra en el feto y sueleenmarcarse en tomo a la dicotomia "pro-vida"contra posiciones "pro-libre leccion". inembargo,esta dicotomia no es el iunicomarco para analizar l

tema del aborto; as inquietudes especto al feto hanencontrado diversas expresiones en las estructurasteol6gicas, uridicas y medicas. En este articulo seexamina la disertaci6n obre el feto en Filipinas,Iran y Estados Unidos, para mostrar uan complejapuede ser. Se analizan las leyes que castigan elaborto comparado on las que castigan el asesinatode ninios,y ademas se estudian los efectos de laecografia, amniocentesis investigaci6n en celulasmadre en la disertacion nti-aborto. Aunque el fetose destaca en gran parte de la disertacion uridica,en realidad no se menciona tan a menudo en ladisertacion popular, por lo menos en ingles y enfilipino, donde terminos como "nino" y "bebe" eutilizan con mayor frecuencia. Por iltimo, elarticulo resalta la necesidad de examinar lasexperiencias y lo referido por las mujeres que hanabortado, y las implicaciones para la gestoria ydefensa y las politicas. Es importante exponer laforma en que los grupos anti-aborto manipulan acultura popular y la experiencia de las mujeres,recalcando sus mensajes mediante el temor y laculpa, y mostrar que las mujeres embarazadas amenudo optan por nterrumpir u embarazo fin dedefender l derecho de su familia a la supervivencia.

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Fetal Discourses and the Politics of the Womb

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