“Choice,” nevertheless, is consistently weaponized against women seeking control over their own bodies. Thought experiments that ask citizens to imagine who an “unborn” child or a “promising” young rapist could have become if only, for instance, a woman had not had an abortion or not spoken up about a rape are each common rhetorical exercises in so-called pro-life discourses and American rape culture, which both police women’s voices and behavior, while excusing institutional and interpersonal abuses against women.
