Because there is a tendency to shy away from the word baby in the pro-choice world, I want to take some time to talk about why I call our baby “baby”.
If used in a technical legal sense, then “baby” is indeed problematic. Baby implies person. While for many — myself included — personhood is irrelevant to whether or not a woman has a right to control her body, for many others it does make a difference. Thus, when we’re talking legal jargon, it’s better to stick to the term fetus. No matter what your position on abortion, a fetus is not legally a person (although there have been attempts to declare it one).
Ethically, the line between personhood and non-personhood is hard to draw. Legally there is a bright line: birth. But ethically, what makes a person? This is a debate millenia old — and confusing even when you leave the unborn out of it. So as far as ethics is concerned, your view of whether or not it’s appropriate to call a fetus a baby depends heavily on what definition of personhood you subscribe to.
But, when it comes down to it, neither of those is particularly relevant most of the time. When I’m talking about my pregnancy or talking with a person about their pregnancy, we’re in the realm of emotions. And when it comes to emotions, it is your baby whenever you feel like it is your baby. Our baby was baby before it was even conceived. “Baby” is the label which captures our hopes and desires. Calling it baby has nothing to do with how physically or mentally developed it is. It has to do with love.