Have you ever heard the phrase, “Women aren’t incubators”? A quick search on Twitter for the phrase brings up many examples. It seems pro-choice people say it a lot in response to pro-life laws being passed or any pro-life arguments.
Similar to how I took a look at another common pro-choice slogan, “Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one!” I’d like to examine this statement in a bit more detail because I think it reveals a lot about how pro-choice people view abortion and women and how they think pro-life people view women. I think there is great value in better understanding people with opposing viewpoints so we can better address the underlying assumptions they are making.
I think this phrase tells us a few things about the person making it.
First of all, as I mentioned earlier, it is usually said in response to something a pro-life person has said or in response to a pro-life law that has been passed. This leads me to believe that pro-choice people think pro-lifers think women are incubators. But in my experience, I have never once seen a pro-life person use the term “incubator” to refer to a woman. So why might pro-choice people think that pro-life people view women as incubators? I have a few ideas.
It seems to be connected to the idea that pro-life people are “pro-birth” and that we force women to stay pregnant. To a pro-choice person, taking away the option of abortion is morally and functionally equivalent to forcing a woman to remain pregnant. And if we force women to stay pregnant, we are valuing their capacity to gestate a human being more than we value their bodily autonomy. Hence, we see women as nothing more than mere machines to produce and grow humans — incubators.
There also seems to be a connection between the idea of women as incubators and pro-life people being religious. Certainly, not all pro-life are religious, and those who are religious are not all Protestant or Catholic Christians. But when pro-choice people say “women aren’t incubators,” a conversation usually draws out that they assume pro-life people are very conservative religious people who prize their women being silent, submissive, or popping out as many kids as they can in their lifetime. They see the pro-life viewpoint as one steeped in patriarchal norms and ideals where women are second-class humans with less freedom than men.
I think the use of this phrase also reveals how pro-choice people view women, pregnancy, and abortion. By insisting on using a term that no pro-life person, in my experience, has seriously used to describe a pregnant woman, pro-choice people unveil their own bias about women’s bodies. No, we are not just good for growing children.
But that is something we, and only we, can do. This does not make us incubators. By using that term so frequently, one might think that pro-choice people themselves view the process of pregnancy as a time of incubation and view pregnant women as walking incubators.
Indeed, many pro-choice people treat pregnancy as if it were a disease: something to be treated and prevented. Or they view pregnancy as an inconvenience. Pregnancy is a really big obstacle to avoid or overcome because it prevents a woman from fully being able to interact in society.
If women are incubators, pregnancy has no positive connotations. It transforms a woman from a person to a machine. While I think many pro-choice people have a wrong view of pregnancy, I do think they have such a view based on their high regard for women and the rights and freedoms they want women to have. It is paradoxical that a high view of women would come with such a low view of pregnancy; but nonetheless, I think at the heart lies a very real concern for women’s equality.
In countering this sort of statement, a clarifying question may be the best way to start. Something like, “Do you think pro-life people view women as incubators? If so, why?” or, “I want to understand your response better. Could you explain why you responded like that to what was said?”
Establishing some common ground by agreeing with a pro-choice person that women are not incubators can also be a helpful step to take in conversation. By finding common ground and asking an open-ended question, we can start to move into the heart of what is going on when someone makes the assertion, “Women are not incubators.”
From there, we can reveal the truth: pro-choice people using this word are fighting against a pro-life view which does not actually exist; they have created a strawman to attack. It is easier to fight a strawman than to engage with the good pro-life arguments that exist. If pro-choice people can write off pro-life people as misogynistic and patriarchal, then they can write off everything we say and do in defense of our view on abortion.
But they could not be further from the truth. Pro-life people value both human lives involved in a pregnancy. Many pro-life people have thought carefully about the balance of rights at play during this unique time in a woman’s life. Pro-life people do not want a woman to become pregnant against her will or to raise a child she does not want.
They do not want women to die from illegal abortions or in the process of childbirth. We want to help women during what may be a very difficult time in their lives and empower them to make a choice for life. We want to walk with her and help care for her even after she gives birth. We want her to have the medical, mental, spiritual, and emotional support she needs and deserves.
Pro-lifers do not view women as incubators. This pro-choice argument is a degrading way of describing a biological process that grows an entirely new and wonderful human and the amazing women who can carry a child inside them.
Pro-life people reject that label for women. I reject that label for myself.