Abortion is a Right! (Kimball questions included)

Judith Arcana’s argument in her article was very powerful because it highlights the fact that abortion is a motherhood issue because it is about babies growing in a women’s body. Women are the ones who have to take all the responsibility, so why should men especially have an input on what we can or cannot do with our bodies, when they are not the one’s held responsible and do not have to deal with the consequences. If the roles were reversed and men were the ones who could get pregnant, not only would contraception be covered by insurance and given out as freely as condoms, but abortion would be legal in every state. Although I had trouble understanding Arcana’s comparison of deciding to send your child to Hebrew school or not to abortion, I resonated with her ideas that as women, “We believe that the choice we are making is the best one for ourselves and our babies”.

I think in order to understand why abortion should be legal it is important to think about the quality of the child’s life if the mother does not get an abortion. For example, if the mother is poor and can barely support herself, then it is guaranteed that the child won’t grow up in a healthy environment. Knowing the outcome of her child’s quality of life, why should this mother go through with having the child if she knows the best choice for the baby is to not have the baby at all. I think it is also imperative to point out that if abortion is made illegal under new legislation, this will not prevent some women from having an abortion. Only now it won’t be safely done; some women will take matters into their own hands and resort to dangerous methods trying to complete abortions themselves. This is shown in Cooney’s article when her friend goes to see a prostitute who did abortions and ended up getting so ill that she had to go to the hospital where she was treated. At the hospital, she was met with nothing but contempt and nasty comments from doctors. Not only this, but if abortion is illegalized, what will happen to the women mentioned in Cooney’s article that are raped and have to deal with the consequences on their own. Before this article I had never known the meaning behind the term “partial abortion” and how it was not even medical, but used by pro-lifers to support their arguments.



Overall, because every abortion case is different, I don’t think it is fair for legislation to be put in place for all abortion cases to abide by the same law. I also believe that abortion should be legal because women should be able to have autonomy over their own bodies and should be able to choose if they want an abortion. If abortion is illegalized, women will only find unsafe inhumane ways to go through the process, in doing so further increasing the maternal mortality rate.


1. When hearing about the Machismo attitude from the Andean society, was it hard to remain open minded and not pass judgement? My roommate is an international student and her cultures customs are very different from ours in that it still looked down upon for women to participate in masculine things such as sports. I realize that it is sometimes hard for me to remain open minded and to understand that for her this is not unusual because it is what she is used to.


2. Did you learn anything from Marcela? If so, what was the most important thing you learned from her?

 -Jane B

Comments

  1. Aliyah D.October 31, 2017 at 4:34 PM

    Jane, I totally agree when you challenge and question why men should have any say in what women do with their bodies. It is enraging since they will never be able to understand what we as women go through, whether it is a monthly period or childbirth. Recently, I saw a picture of a White House meeting on women's health, services, and maternity coverage, and not one woman was present in the room. The meeting was solely between a group of white men deciding the fate of maternal care - absolutely infuriating!

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