Abortion is a very hard topic to discuss in Americas society today; it is also very hard for people to choose which side they want to be on, pro-choice or pro-life. Once I was old enough to comprehend what abortion was I chose to take the view of pro-choice. The view of pro-choice is women having the right to deicide if she wants to keep or terminate a pregnancy. I feel that abortion should continue to stay legalized in all 50 states. I feel if the option to an abortion is taken away, the rights of women will just continue to decrease from then on.
Before abortion was legalized, a lot of women ended up hurting themselves just in attempting to get an abortion. I once watched a documentary called "The Abortion Diaries", which had several different women telling their stories about their abortion. One woman traveled all the way to another country just to receive an abortion. This doctor performed the procedure wrong, which led this woman to never be able to have kids. Since women were not allowed to have reproductive rights, they became uneducated about their own bodies. If this woman knew that this doctor wasn't performing the abortion procedure correctly, she could have stopped the procedure and would have been able to have kids when she was ready, but instead this woman will never get the opportunity to even have a baby. If this woman was allowed to obtain the right contraceptives, then she could have prevented the abortion entirely. I feel that if the legalization of abortion is taken away more women will have this exact story as this woman.
Even after abortion was legalized some men still feel like they have control over women and our reproductive rights. In “The Abortion Diaries”, a woman was having sex with a man and this woman was not on birth control, but the man still came inside of her. Even though the woman had "legal" rights over her body, her rights didn't matter and especially didn't matter to that man. In class we talked about who was interested in women’s reproduction/fertility control and of course men were at the top of this list and women were no where to be found on that list. To me, this story represents this list and even though women are supposed to have control over our bodies, we don't. Women should now be at the top of this list, but in some cases and to some people we aren't.
I feel that this video relates to our most recent class discussion because to me, its all about the control women have on their own bodies. I do feel that women have come a long way since the mid-nineteenth century. We have gained legal rights to our own bodies. We are allowed to obtain contraceptives. We are allowed to have an abortion. Although we have gained all of these rights, I still feel like women do not have complete control over their own bodies and these stories can attest to that. I feel that one day we can have not only our "legal" rights, but actually feel like our "legal" rights are respected and taken seriously.
a link to the abortion diaries website
a video of an interview from the abortion diaries
Because of the social culture and the religion, in the United States, the congress changed the abortion law many times in the argument. Even abortion is legal in most states; however, they set up much limit, such as the legal pregnant period must be under three months. In fact, some young people do not have the experience and the knowledge about pregnancy. Sometimes, some teenagers are shame to tell their parents they are pregnant until have to say. Therefore, many girls may past the legal period for abortion. As a result, they are forced to be teen mothers. In fact, they do not have that plan to have babies at a so young age. They want to study, date with what they love as normal. The law deprives their right of choosing their life in a sense.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, this social structure also is unfair for the kids who were born because of accident. For a well-planed birth, the family will provide the best growing environment for children. On t he contrary, for the unprepared birth, they family (most are single mother) may do not want to take care of the children and hate them because of the inconvenience they bring. No matter the economy and the love, the unexpected children probably lack of them. This kind of circumstances will lead to a bad childhood, which may cause psychological illnesses to children.
As a strong advocate for pro-life, I would have to disagree with this post. While I consider myself a feminist after taking this class, abortion is where I draw the line. Whenever someone commits themselves to sexual activities they are taking on the responsibilities of possibly getting pregnant. If you don't want children then the simple fact of the matter is not to have sex. This excludes rape victims who have no control over this matter; however, I still don't support the idea of them getting an abortion either. How would you feel if your life was ripped from you before you even got the chance to fight for it? No one decides who their father or mother is, so why should they be punished for it? Society today feels like they can do whatever they want and dodge any consequences. As much as my opinions are based on my spiritual and moral beliefs, I personally feel that selfishly taking ones life to better your own is the easy and weak way out. If a woman truly is not capable of taking care of her child then the simple solution is adoption. The only possible justification I can think of for undergoing abortion is that if the pregnancy will harm or even kill the mother. In terms of not having the resources to learn or acquire contraceptives, that is something that severely needs to be dealt with for adults. The truth of the matter for kids, though, is that they need to be taught that sex is a form of REPRODUCTION, not just pleasure. If society today wasn't driven by such sexual desires, I don't believe we would be having this problem. I understand there is a lot of controversy within this issue and not many people agree with me, but no one had yet to voice this opinion.
ReplyDelete"Love says, 'I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person.' Abortion says, 'I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself.'"
I also identify myself as pro-choice. While I myself wouldn't choose to have an abortion, I think it should be a reproductive right for all women. Instead of making abortion illegal, I think people that are pro-life should refocus their efforts to pregnancy prevention. They should educate high school and middle schoolers about contraceptives instead of abstinence only education. People are going to have sex. I feel like abstinence education completely ignores that people will have sex if they want to.
ReplyDeleteI also don't believe that abortion is "taking a life" if it is done in a really early stage of pregnancy. I also think abortion should be acceptable for those that are raped. We just talked about violence against women today. Would you want a women who has already suffered from an act of sexual violence to have to deal with an unwanted pregnancy that she had nothing to do with?
My entire life, I attended parochial school, which obviously only believed in abstinence-only sex education and pro-life. Through twelve years in Catholic schools, I've flip-flopped on where I stand on the issue. Currently, I view myself as pro-choice. First off, I don't think that abortion will ever be outlawed in the United States, especially as long as it falls under a privacy right. I do agree with the limitations on abortion, such as the time period (it's difficult to argue it isn't taking a life when it's in the last month of pregnancy) and certain types of abortion, such as saline abortions, should be outlawed.
ReplyDeleteThe issue with rape is that the pregnancy would be extremely difficult for that woman. I agree with Tessa in the sense that it isn't the child's fault and that they shouldn't be punished for the circumstance that caused their existence, but at the same time, even if the child is put up for adoption, what do you tell them? If I found out that I was adopted and then upon discovering my birth parents that my father was a rapist, I can't even comprehend how I would feel. Some people argue that the child shouldn't know, but that's a big deal to lie about. One of my friend's grandmother was raped and ended up pregnant. She had the child and put her up for adoption. Years later they found each other and now the woman (my friend's aunt) is a huge part of the family. However, I understand that this is an extremely unique case and would take a very specific person to even try and do this.
Though I'm pro-choice, I think abortion is something that shouldn't be exercised commonly, and that we should focus on having lower abortion rates. The best way to do this is through education. Even though my high school was religious affiliated and had an abstinence only view, my health teacher explained to the entire class a list of myths of ways girls could prevent pregnancy. I always assumed that my high school never really completely covered the idea of sex-ed, but once I got to college I realized I knew better than most people I met here. Also, I believe that with all private insurances covering birth control (including the morning after pill) starting in 2012 will help decrease the rate.