Philosophy professor Heather Lakey explores regret, reproductive ethics, and existentialism in new article
The publication situates COA scholarship in global conversations on feminist philosophy and moral decision‑making.
A new article in Simone de Beauvoir Studies offers a philosophical challenge to US policy debates about “abortion regret.” In “Rethinking Regret: Simone de Beauvoir, Abortion, and Moral Decision‑Making,” College of the Atlantic McNally Family Chair in Philosophy and Human Ecology Heather Lakey '00, MPhil '05 draws on de Beauvoir’s The Ethics of Ambiguity (Philosophical Library, 1948) to rethink what regret means in the context of reproductive choices.
Lakey argues that regret does not signal the immorality of abortion. Rather, regret is an inherent part of human freedom and ethical choice. By grounding contemporary abortion debates in de Beauvoir’s existentialist ethics, she shows how reproductive decisions, like all moral decisions, are singular, ambiguous, and shaped by our relationships with others.
“While writing this essay, I wanted to work outside the binary polemics that dominate abortion discourse in the United States, and offer an understanding of morality as a fundamentally creative and precarious practice that makes regret a constant possibility,” Lakey said. “In Simone de Beauvoir’s existential ethics, I found helpful philosophical resources for achieving these objectives and for recognizing the complexity and diversity of reproductive choices.”
Lakey’s work offers a timely philosophical perspective amid ongoing debates about abortion laws and reproductive autonomy. By engaging with de Beauvoir’s existential ethics, she provides readers with a deeper, more nuanced way to understand reproductive decision‑making.
Lakey earned a BA and MPhil in human ecology from College of the Atlantic and an interdisciplinary PhD in philosophy and gender studies from the University of Maine. Her recent work explores the intersections of existentialism and reproductive ethics and politics.
Simone de Beauvoir Studies is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to advancing scholarship on themes relevant to Simone de Beauvoir’s legacy, such as gender and sexuality, race and culture, feminism, existentialism, literature, and political activism. Founded in 1983, the journal publishes scholarly studies and book reviews in English and French.
College of the Atlantic is dedicated to the study and practice of human ecology—the interdisciplinary exploration of the relationships between humans and their social, natural, and built environments. Students integrate the arts, sciences, and humanities through a self‑designed major grounded in experiential and place‑based learning. Intentionally small, with about 350 students and 35 faculty, COA fosters close collaboration, individualized study, and deep engagement with local and global communities. Founded in 1969 on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the college has been named the #1 Green College by The Princeton Review every year since 2016, reflecting its long‑standing commitment to environmental leadership, creativity, and meaningful change.