The Dobbs Decision, Forced Birth, and the Fantasy of the Selfless Mother

Abstract

The Dobbs decision and the U.S. abortion ban, or forced birth, is a clear human rights violation. With zero access to safe abortion, a pregnant person must either stay pregnant and give birth to a child they may not want, or put the child up for adoption. This will disproportionately affect already marginalized people and communities managing systemic racism. And it is forcing pregnant people with the life-changing responsibility of caring for all unwanted, unplanned children—whether they want to or not. How will this affect the life and trajectory of the person giving birth? How will the unaborted infant receive the necessary love and attention to grow and thrive? While legislation can impose forced birth, it cannot enforce the conditions of love and care. The Supreme Court majority’s ideal or fantasy of the selfless mother is a disembodied dissociated version of motherhood– an image of a mother–living unwittingly in the shadows of cultural expectation and intergenerational patterns of maternal silence. With the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court has enshrined the idealized fantasy of the selfless mother into law.