“Fetal personhood” is the legal fiction that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses are already separate persons with rights that government officials can protect by controlling the bodies and lives of pregnant women. It gives fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses a right no born human being possesses—the right to use the body of another human being without their consent, even if that use harms pregnant women’s health or costs them their lives.
This is kind of the crux of the pro-choice position, for me. Where life begins is a complicated question, and as someone who isn't religious, I don't care if other people believe like every sperm has a soul or whatever. It's the legal enforcement of these beliefs that give an egg rights I as a citizen do not have that's the problem. Rights I shouldn't have. I shouldn't be able to tell someone I need their kidney to live and have cops arrest them if they say no.
It's never actually about that, anyway, except for a few true believers. It's about control, as this article makes clear. Most of the cases didn't even involve abortion.
Pregnant women are in a special class of persons, under an exacting microscope and subject to arrest for otherwise non-existent crimes, such as “illegal breastfeeding” or “unlawful delays in obtaining health care.”
And, of course, there's the hypocrisy. If harming fetuses even in ways that don't involve abortion are criminal offenses, there are a lot of companies that are doing harm enmasse to these beings more precious than living women and pregnant people.
I don't believe prolife people anymore when they say it's about protecting life.