ADA CALHOUN
If a state or community legally decides that a fetus is a person, there are many situations where there is a conflict of interest between the mother to be and the fetus. A pregnant woman, having a single drink of alcohol, potentially dangers the fetus (called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome). Smoking is clearly hazardous to the health of the fetus (underweight babies and more infant mortality and even more SIDS deaths. A diet to keep a mother thinner may not be nutritious for the fetus, A few states and local government have started prosecuting pregnant women for their personal behavior that might be detrimental to the fetus—often the purpose is to assert the right of the state to regulate the behavior of the pregnant woman so that the state can control abortion.
Ada Calhoun is an American non-fiction author. She is the author of St. Marks Is Dead, a history of St. Mark's Place in East Village, Manhattan, New York, Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, a book of essays about marriage, and of Why We Can't Sleep, a book about Generation X women and their struggles. She has also been a critic, serving as a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review; a co-author and ghostwriter, having collaborated on three books by Tim Gunn; and a freelance essayist and reporter. A Village Voice profile in 2015 said: "Her CV can seem as though it were cobbled together from the résumés of three ambitious journalists."
