Abstract Prenatal alcohol-related disorders are highly prevalent and result in permanent, lifelong disabilities. The child may be born with debilitating birth deformities and severe cognitive deficits. These children have a low life expectancy, and a low quality of life. They are disproportionately represented in juvenile justice and foster homes, and they are more likely to be high school drop outs, incarcerated, or misdiagnosed, and have higher rates of mental illness. Despite these impairments, there are few state statutes in place that protect the rights of the fetus. This is because the fetus has not been recognized as a person. Feminist groups argue that if the fetus was granted personhood and rights, then women would be relegated to the inferior position of a fetal vessel. This paper addresses these concerns and advocates for state enforced mandatory rehabilitation for pregnant women who are addicted to substances. Mandatory rehabilitation has precedent and is a logical solution. Additionally, this paper investigates the controversy of whether there is a safe dosage that can be consumed while pregnant that will not harm the fetus. While there is no safe dosage found, and women are strongly advised to understand that an unnecessary risk is involved with any prenatal alcohol consumption, there is a body of evidence suggesting that low-level drinking may not have a clinically significant effect on the fetus. Thus, women should be allowed, within the law, to make the choice to drink lightly during pregnancy, because it is not assaulting the fetus. By drinking prenatally, the woman chooses not to provide the most optimal intrauterine environment. However, the fetus is not entitled to an optimally pregnancy, but is entitled to a non-assaulted development

Since the introduction of a new type of anti-abortion legislation in the United States which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, women’s options regarding abortion are being limited. How “problems” are represented or constituted in legislation shows that problems are time, place and context dependant. By using Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be?” approach to policy analysis, problem representations and subjectification effects in the heartbeat bills were identified. The problem representation of abortion as “lack of information” emerged as the central problem representation and the subject positions that were made available limits women’s choices regarding abortion. Fetal rights emerged as the core of the argumentation in the legislation, excluding women’s rights. How the problem of abortion is represented to be, the subjectification effects and the way rights are used and argued for in antiabortion legislation shows how they effectively limits women’s abortion choices.

abstract: Treating the Pro-Life Movement as a monolithic entity creates a blind spot regarding the cognitive effect of the fetal personhood rhetorical framework. This study applies an interpretive lens, using legal and discourse analysis as tools, to provide a critical analysis of personhood laws and web content to shed light on how linguistic patterns construct, and are informed by, worldview. Examining variations in proposed Human Life Amendments—and asking how, or if, proposed bills achieve their specified aim—reveals tension in state and federal jurisdiction of abortion regulations. It also exposes conflicts concerning tactical preferences for attaining fetal personhood and ending abortion that are useful to differentiating the Pro-Life and Personhood Movements. Framing and discursive practices of the Personhood Movement reflect a ‘black and white’ mentality and an overly-simplified worldview. Movement cognition is shaped by patterns of omission and exclusion, inclusion, repetition, troubling phrases, and the power of labels. The linguistic choices demonstrate, constitute, and reinforce the dominant narratives of the movement and are integral to advocacy, praxis, and legislative efforts. While the struggle to pass personhood-compliant legislation has not been successful, the rhetorical practices and representational framework of the Personhood Movement have succeeded in altering the national discourse surrounding beginnings of life and abortion. The extreme views of the Personhood Movement reconstitute the middle—making tactics of the mainstream Pro-Life Movement seem moderate and reasonable by comparison, which allows dangerous legislation to slide by under the radar. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2018

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