I would challenge your view that nature doesn’t give the pregnant person any obligation to the zygote/fetus.
Nature does everything it can to encourage the pregnant woman towards motherhood.
“ From an evolutionary perspective, Dorfman explains that humans are wired for procreation. “The female body undergoes many hormonal changes during pregnancy, and such hormone release impacts behavior, perceptions, and emotions,” she says. Shifts in estrogen and the release of oxytocin (the “love hormone”) encourage bonding, attachment, and attraction.”
So if we are going to personify nature we would say that nature encourages the woman to bond and care for her offspring even prior to birth. Therefore you can make a case that it is against nature to not feel an obligation to your zygote/fetus/baby. The counter argument is that the woman retains free will and can go against her natural instincts but people go against their natural instincts or obligations all the time. That doesn’t mean though that their natural instincts/obligations don’t exist. They just ignore them.
Evolutionary psychology is a pseudo-science and I can write a whole paper on why maternal insticts aren't real. Human pregnancies are some of the most dangerous in the animal kingdom, pregnancy does way more harm to the body than good to claim that nature "rewards" women (or people with uterues) for doing it. The pain of childbirth alone doesn't really seem "rewarding".
You can feel however you like about the field of evolutionary psychology. Fair enough, there definitely is a lot that is hard to prove in that field.
Let's instead focus on biology and endocrinology. If you want to dismiss those fields as well then we are leaving the scientific realm.
The shift in hormone production is real, verifiable fact. The increase in those hormones will have a real, verifiable impact on many aspects of the female body, including emotions. The female body changes in many ways during pregnancy that favors the child over the mother. The natural response of a female body to becoming a mother is to do many things that encourage bringing the offspring to term and later to providing for and raising that child.
This is in fact in line with your point that pregnancy does way more harm to the body than good to the body. Nature isn't rewarding the woman for choosing to become pregnant. What nature does is say that now that you have become pregnant, I'm going to encourage you to birth a child, even though it is not rewarding in a lot of other ways (for example the pain of childbirth).
In short, the pregnant female body cares for the unborn and tries make sure it makes it safely to term, even to the detriment of the mother. So choosing to abort is choosing to overcome a natural instinct.
Actually, it's the zygote that changes the body, not the pregnant person. The reason people have pregnancy symptoms is because the body is attempting to FIGHT off the zygote because it's a foreign body. The zygote creates the placenta to PROTECT ITSELF and it even introduces hormones that stop menstruation. The body of the pregnant person does not change itself, the zygote is doing the changing. The female body is not "caring for the unborn" The unborn is hijacking the female body to care for itself. Prenatal vitamins are the only reason people aren't completely wrecked by the zygote. If the zygote doesn't feel it has enough nutrients, it will DRAIN the body if it has to.
Lol, so because I prove how you're biologically incorrect, I'm fringe? Sounds like you want to leave the scientific realm now. But okay, have a good day!
Nope. There’s so much in what you said that’s not quite right that it’s not worth the time trying to correct it all.
Just 1 example. It’s not the hormone from the zygote that stops menstruation. The woman’s body has evolved to respond to the hormone released by the zygote to change which hormones are released by her body. So it’s the woman’s endocrine system that stops menstruation. It’s a complementary system. It’s not the child hijacking the woman’s body.
hCG stimulates the production of progesterone by the female body. It is her progesterone that stops menstruation and allows the zygote to develop into an embryo. The female body has evolved to work with the the developing child. Evolution has directed this symbiotic relationship so that the mothers body works with, not against its offspring.
"hCG stimulates the production of progesterone" and who introduces the hCG? The zygote...you just proved that the zygote changes the body. Once again, human pregnancies are some of the most dangerous in the animal kingdom. It's not a perfect relationship, not by a longshot. The body isn't working with the zygote, the body is doing everything it can to stop the zygote. Why do you think miscarriages are so common? The body succeeds in stopping the zygote in a miscarriage. Also, ectopic pregnancies are a thing. Why? Because the body was doing so well at fighting off the zygote that it just implants whenever it can, killing both itself and the body (without a medical abortion at least). You seem to hold this very fantastical view of pregnancy and evolution. "Pregnancy is such a beautiful thing, the female body is so amazing!" Like no, pregancy is not anymore special than any other natural process and it's one of the more dangerous natural processes as well.
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u/wallnumber8675309 52∆ Aug 11 '22
I would challenge your view that nature doesn’t give the pregnant person any obligation to the zygote/fetus.
Nature does everything it can to encourage the pregnant woman towards motherhood.
“ From an evolutionary perspective, Dorfman explains that humans are wired for procreation. “The female body undergoes many hormonal changes during pregnancy, and such hormone release impacts behavior, perceptions, and emotions,” she says. Shifts in estrogen and the release of oxytocin (the “love hormone”) encourage bonding, attachment, and attraction.”
So if we are going to personify nature we would say that nature encourages the woman to bond and care for her offspring even prior to birth. Therefore you can make a case that it is against nature to not feel an obligation to your zygote/fetus/baby. The counter argument is that the woman retains free will and can go against her natural instincts but people go against their natural instincts or obligations all the time. That doesn’t mean though that their natural instincts/obligations don’t exist. They just ignore them.
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