A Behavior Analyst Talks About Abortion: webinar aired 02/06/24

Abstract

by A. Charles Catania, Ph.D. The availability of abortion continues to be a contentious issue in our politics. The issues are confounded by religious views, by questions about the conflicting rights of the mother and the fetus, and by verbal labels (e.g., pro-life versus pro-choice). Concentrating on such slippery questions as when life or personhood begins can lead to views that dichotomize conception and pregnancy into times before but not after which abortions are tolerated. We will instead look at pregnancies as continua during which the fetus develops continuously. We will especially consider changes in behavior, as when the fetus becomes responsive to the voice of the mother and to other stimuli that may enter the uterus. These considerations will lead us to examine what legal criteria for abortion might look like if they were based on behavioral along with or instead of other dimensions.