Pregnancy and Prenatal Harm - by Callie Pagano

I agreed with the arguments presented in the article, "Pregnancy and Prenatal Harm to Offspring" by Robertson and Schulman. When a woman finds out she is pregnant, she has two choices. Either she can choose to abort the baby or she can choose to carry the baby to term. If the woman carries the baby to term, I think that she is obligated to take the best possible care of the fetus that she can. This includes prenatal care, following medical advice and abstaining from behaviors that will cause harm to the fetus, such as alcohol and drug use. If a pregnant woman is fully informed about the proper care her unborn child should receive to be born normally and chooses to ignore that advice, she should be able to be prosecuted for that offense. After all, she had every option of aborting the fetus when she found out she was pregnant. If the woman does not want to take the appropriate steps to care for her unborn child, she should abort it instead of causing harm to her fetus. In addition, if a woman is not capable of taking care of the fetus while she is pregnant, how is that woman supposed to take care of the child once it is born? In my opinion, if a woman is not able to provide proper care for her fetus, she would likewise be an unfit or neglectful mother as well. Perhaps if counseling, monitoring and compliance were forced for mothers that do not comply voluntarily, the new mother would learn the importance of being responsible and caring for her child and as a result, would be better equipped to properly care for her child.