Abortion has been, and most likely always will be, a heated topic. It’s debated in government and in people’s everyday lives. I strongly believe that every woman should have the right to control her own body. Abortion is a very personal choice, and it should be no one else’s choice except for the woman who is pregnant. I am absolutely pro-choice.
Allison Crews, author of “So I Chose, ” writes, “Being pro-woman, being pro-choice, means being supportive of any reproductive choice a woman makes for herself. Women, of any age, in any social situation, have the right to bear children. We have the right to choose when, where, with whom and how we bear children. We have the right to abort a pregnancy, for whatever reason we may have. If we have no money, if we have no support, if we wish to continue our education or career uninterrupted, if we are being abused, if we are raped, it is our right not to bear a child (148).” A woman should never be forced to carry a fetus if she does not want to, no questions asked. She is carrying the fetus, it is her body, and it is her choice. No one should have the right to control someone else’s body. A baby transforms a person’s life and if that woman is not ready to have a baby or does not have the funds to provide for the baby, then she should not be forced to carry the baby. Whatever the reason is for aborting a pregnancy, it is no else’s choice except for the woman carrying the baby. Yes, the father of the child can have an opinion about whether or not to keep the baby, but in the end the woman has the final say. It is her body and she has the right to do what she wants with her body.
Whatever choice is made about the pregnancy, the woman should be supported. She should not be ridiculed for her decision. Allison Crews writes, “Young mothers need to be supported in their choices, whatever they may be. Whether they elect to abort a pregnancy, to place a child for adoption or to raise their children, resources to help young women make and cope with their choices need to be readily available. Women must speak boldly and proudly of their choices, so that other women feel safe in making their own (143).” The choice to continue or end a pregnancy is one of the hardest decisions a woman will have to make, and no matter the final decision, a woman needs to feel like she did the best thing for herself.
Abortion is a personal choice. Women should not harass another woman for having an abortion, especially if she has never gone through the same thing. How would this woman understand what this woman contemplating abortion is going through? Until you experience something, you should not be one to pass judgment. Shouldn't we want a mother to want to care for her baby, to want to have the baby, to want to love the baby? If a woman is not ready to be a mother, then she should not have to be. Motherhood is a lot of work and responsibility, and if one is not ready for that step, she should not be forced to have a baby. Crews says, “She had the right to make a choice for herself and her future without being harassed and intimidated (145).” A woman should not make the decision to carry a baby based on what others think; she should not feel pressured to carry a child. Bearing a child is solely a woman’s choice, no one else’s.
Crews puts it perfectly: “Our bodies are our own, our futures ours to mold. No one should be allowed to interfere with them. Whatever our reproductive choices, nobody can ever deny us our right to them (149).” Our body is our own, and we are the only person who can decide what to do with it. If a woman wants an abortion or wants to have a baby then that is absolutely her right and her choice.
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A major theme throughout feminism is this idea of choice: a woman should have the freedom to control her own decisions, actions, appearance, etc. without influence from the greater society or fear of judgment/condemnation. Abortion is absolutely no exception: a woman must feel able to decide whether (and when) she becomes a mother and to control what happens to both her body and then to her future.
ReplyDeleteA similar pro-choice stance was cemented by the government in the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. However, the legal right to have an abortion does not mean that everyone woman still feels the capability to enact this right. Legal change does not always transform into social or cultural change. Various factors, such as socioeconomic status, can preclude some women from aborting. Other women may opt against having the abortion they desire because they fear the disapproval and judgment of others (which in terms of abortion, can be extraordinarily vocal and harsh). Women who choose to abort their fetuses have long been made to feel guilty for their choice- Allison Crews’ recalls an instance in which a young teenager girl was berated coming out of a clinic by a man yelling, “Ask for forgiveness, the blood is on your hands!” and a woman yelling, “I will pray for you!” (Findlen 144). However, this is not a choice that any woman, regardless of age, makes lightly. It is a difficult one, and people fail to recognize the long thought and good intentions that go into such a decision. These instances of such harm criticisms seem to show that people feel entitled to strip women of their rights. Crews rights of the poor, shaking girl: “She had a right to feel protected, a right to feel safe. She had the right to make a choice for herself and her future without being harassed and intimated. And her rights were ignored because she was young, she was female, and she was pregnant. Three afflictions that, to the protesters outside of the clinic, meant that she had no rights at all” (145). Women making this decision to enact their right to abortion thus need support in the face of such brutal personal attacks. Crews comments on her own experience, “I prayed that I went to the appointment, the women who had helped that girl walk through the clinic doors would be there to walk with me. I prayed that someone would be there to listen to me sob; I prayed for a place to be able to cry and a place to feel safe” (145). Regardless of what the choice is, a woman has the right to make it- motherhood, adoption, abortion. Again in Crews’ words, "Young mothers need to be supported in their choices, whatever they may be. Whether they elected to abort a pregnancy, to place a child for adoptions or to raise their children, resources to help young women make and cope with their choices need to be readily available. Women must speak boldly and proudly of their choices, so that other women feel safe in making their own" (143). The idea of sisterhood that is so prevalent throughout feminism surfaces yet again here.
However, a woman’s right to choose does not seem to tell the whole story. What role does the father play? A woman is the one responsible for carrying the baby, but does that mean the wishes of the father are to be completely ignored? What should happen in a situation where a woman wishes to abort but the father wishes the child to be born?
I, like Anna, am also pro choice. I agree with Crews's idea that nobody can deny us the right to make our own reproductive choices. More than that, I think the choice needs to remain private. It is one thing to allow women to make their own choices, but a whole different issue when those choices become public and women are criticized for what is rightly theirs.
ReplyDeleteMuscio's article was really interesting to me. She discusses how in the U.S., people look all over for methods of healing, when the best place to look is inside our selves. She says, "In the U.S., we don't (and we're alo not encouraged to) look inside ourselves for healing or for finding truths or answers" (Muscio 115). I think this is true--people are so used to having something go wrong or dealing with a tough decision by seeing a therapist, joining a support group, etc. when in reality, self reflection and finding healing from within is the only thing that will bring you peace. In the case of abortion, I am confident that this is true.
I find Muscio's description of alternative organic abortions to be a bit disturbing, but when she says, "If alternative organic abortions were explored and taken more seriously, there wouldn't be much of an abortion debate. Abortion would be a personal, intimate thing among friends" I have to say Amen along with her (Muscio 117).
Overall, as Crews describes (and Anna sums up), abortion is a personal choice. Our bodies are our own and nobody else's. I understand the pro-life concern for the life of a fetus and the emotional concern that many people have--but when it comes down to it, you cannot decide for anyone else when the issue is as large as bringing a life into the world. Abortion may be a solution, but only if the woman carrying the child comes to that conclusion on her own and feels as though that is something she can handle.
I meant to say "ADOPTION may be a solution." sorry!
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Anna's point. Abortion is a woman's choice. That is the bottom line. I also agree that whatever the woman chooses to do, she should not be ridiculed for her decision. Crews spoke about that poor girl walking out of the clinic, being ridiculed by protesters. Those who are pro-life, for whatever reasons whether it be religion or personal, have no right to attack someone who chose to abort. They seem to portray this innocent "do what is right" attitude, yet they rip young girls apart who want to get an abortion. As if that decision isn't hard enough. I strongly feel that woman need to make the decision for themselves.
ReplyDeleteOne of the continuing themes of pro-choice literature is that a woman has a right to govern her own life and by extension the life of her unborn child. “So I Chose” and “Abortion is a Motherhood Issue” both touch upon the gravity of this choice and the responsibility that motherhood, whether potential or actual, implies.
ReplyDeleteAbortion has always been an emotionally-charged issue because the stakes are so high. Whether the mother chooses to abort is a matter of life and death, both for the mother whose life will be irreparably changed by carrying a child to full term and for the potential life of the child growing inside her. Yet despite the high stakes of the decision, it is a procedure that is often shrouded in mystery.
And yet, it’s not as if the knowledge bank doesn’t exist. Since the passing of Roe v. Wade and even before then, women have been getting abortions and yet their stories are largely silenced, perhaps out of shame or grief or guilt or being told that abortions are something that you simply don’t talk about. Muscio’s account of her abortion is horrific but her discussion of alternative abortion methods, while perhaps of unknown effectiveness, presents a way for women to share their knowledge and offer support to one another. In this way, women might be able to take fuller ownership of their experiences, which would no longer necessarily be mediated by a (largely male) medical institution.
Recently, a women decided to share her abortion on Twitter, in hopes of providing insight about the experience to other women who might be considering it. By taking away some of the shame of an abortion and shedding light on the procedure, she allows other women to terminate their pregnancies with more knowledge.