Presumptive fertility is an ideology that leads us to treat not only pregnant women, but all female patients of reproductive age, with the presumption that they could be pregnant. This preoccupation with the possibility that a woman could be pregnant compels medical and social interventions that have adverse consequences on women’s lived experiences. It is important to pause now to examine this ideology. Despite our social realities -- there is a patient centered care movement in medical practice, American women are delaying and forgoing childbearing, abortion is safe and legal -- there is still a powerful medical and social process that subjugates womens’ bodies and lived experiences to their potential of being a mother. Fetoconsciousness, preoccupation with the fetus or hypothetical, not-yet-conceived, fetus privileges its potential embodiment over its mother’s reality. As a set of values that influence our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, the ideology of presumptive fertility is contextualized, critiqued, and challenged. / Urban Bioethics