In this article I present a model of an archetypical Western character that I call “the advocate for the unborn,” a character who comes into being and is defined through her reading of, and ascription of meaning to, objects and phenomena. I borrow the term “advocate for the unborn” from the declared stance of pro-life activists from the conservative right in the United States who advocate for the unborn fetus—the potential, future, American. I focus especially on their formulation of the “heartbeat law,” which prohibits abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy and is based on the identification of the fetal heartbeat and the ascription of meaning to it.

While familiarizing myself with the insistent and maximalist reading of the declared advocate for her unborn objects, I discovered how much it resembles mine—a secular, feminist writer who is explicitly opposed to the heartbeat law. This disturbing similarity raises questions: Is it possible that the advocate’s interpretations are congruent with those I inherited from sources that are seemingly totally contrary to the American pro-life discourse—the hermeneutics of suspicion, critical theories, and especially feminist and queer theories? Is it possible that in the ways of reading that these theories formulated and stabilized, the current incarnation of critical wisdom, a faint image of that character can be seen? And if that is the case, is it possible that as a feminist writer who is concerned with the female body and with abortion I nevertheless read, interpret, and am as emotionally involved in the object of my reading (the theoretical, textual, and even feminist unborn) as an advocate for the unborn?

The character of the advocate helps in identifying the congruence between the two ideological spheres and is characterized by several tendencies: 1. Amplification and articulate expression of the object’s voice; 2. Preparedness and anticipation of it; 3. Demand for, and striving toward, the full realization of the potential that she recognizes in it; 4. Movement from a negative position to an affirmative position. The attempt to identify ways of reading and interpretation that exist outside these tendencies may make possible another way to contend with the proposed law and the issue of abortion and may point to the beginnings of a weaker and more local post-critical reading.