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Mandatory Ultrasounds And The Precession Of Simulacra, Jessica Knouse

San Diego Law Review

The term “precession of simulacra”—coined by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard to describe the postmodern phenomenon wherein “images precede reality”—accurately describes what is wrong with the pre-abortion ultrasound mandates that have recently been enacted in a number of states. The term captures the idea that the traditional reality–image hierarchy has been inverted and repeatedly re-inverted to the point where the boundary between the two has become blurred. Laws that require doctors to display and describe sonograms prior to performing abortions exploit this blurring by encouraging women seeking abortions to experience fetal images more vividly than they experience the realities that lead …