The Unborn Born Again: Neo-Imperialism, the Evangelical Right, and the Culture of Life

Abstract

Taking its cue from the political rhetoric of the Bush regime, this article attempts to understand the complex relationships between neo-liberal free-marketism, evangelical faith, and the culture of life now at work in U.S. politics. It argues that the claims of unborn life are central not only to the sexual politics of the religious right but also to an understanding of postmodern U.S. nationalism, imperial power, and indebtedness. In this way, it attempts to explain how the seemingly anti-foundational tendencies of neo-liberalism are nevertheless haunted by recurrent bouts of sexual and moral fundamentalism. —mc

I also believe human life is a sacred gift from our Creator. I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your President I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world.

—George W. Bush

The Unborn at War

In early 2002, George Bush issued a press release proclaiming January 22 as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. In the speech he delivered for the occasion, Bush reminded the public that the American nation was founded on certain inalienable rights, chief among them being the right to life. The speech is remarkable in that it assiduously duplicates the phrasing of popular pro-life rhetoric: the visionaries who signed the Declaration of Independence had recognized that all were endowed with a fundamental dignity by virtue of their mere biological existence. This fundamental and inalienable right to life, Bush insists, should be extended to the most innocent and defenseless amongst us—including the unborn: “Unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.” What is even more remarkable about the speech is its smooth transition from right to life to neoconservative just war rhetoric. Immediately after his invocation of the unborn, Bush recalls the events of September 11, which he interprets as acts of violence against life itself. These events, he claims, have engaged the American people in a war of indefinite duration, a war “to preserve and protect life itself,” and hence the founding values of the nation. In an interesting confusion of tenses, the unborn emerge from Bush’s speech as the innocent victims of a prospective act of terrorism while the historical legacy of the nation’s founding fathers is catapulted into the potential life of its future generations. Bush’s plea for life is both a requiem and a call to arms: formulated in a nostalgic future tense, it calls upon the American people to protect the future life of the unborn in the face of our “uncertain times,” while preemptively mourning their loss.¹

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it is easy to forget that the most explosive test confronting Bush in the early months of his presidency was not terrorism but the issue of whether or not to provide federal funds for research on embryonic stem cells. The issue had been on the agenda since 1998 when scientists funded by the private company Geron announced the creation of the first immortalized cell lines using cells from a frozen embryo and an aborted fetus. Bush, who had campaigned on an uncompromising pro-life agenda, put off making a decision for as long as possible. In July 2001 he made a visit to the Pope, who reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to any experimentation using human embryos (The White House, “Fact Sheet). On August 11, 2001, however, Bush declared that he would allow federal funding on research using the 60 or so embryonic stem cell lines that were already available (the actual number of viable cell lines turned out to be less than this). In making this concession to stem cell research, he claimed, the U.S. government was not condoning the destruction of the unborn. “Life and death decisions” had already been made by scientists, Bush argued. By intervening after the fact, the state was ensuring that life would nevertheless be promoted: in this case, not the life of the potential person but the utopia of perpetually renewed life promised...