Abortion: \"Pro-Life\" and \"Pro-Choice\" PDF

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Exploratory Paper Final Draft J. Aaron English Composition 112-030 9 April 2018 Abortion: “Pro-Life” and “Pro-Choice” For the last few years, the topic of abortion has been in the hot seat, continuously sparking an abundance of debates on an ethical, moral, and religious scale. This issue is a delic...

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Exploratory Paper Final Draft J. Aaron English Composition 112-030 9 April 2018 Abortion: “Pro-Life” and “Pro-Choice” For the last few years, the topic of abortion has been in the hot seat, continuously sparking an abundance of debates on an ethical, moral, and religious scale. This issue is a delicate one because to some, it means killing a baby. To others, it means vacuuming out a fetus from a woman’s womb and nothing more. To some it is murder, plain and simple. To others, it is a collection of cells that cannot feel or think or comprehend. This is the debate between “pro-life,” valuing human life above all else and “pro-choice,” letting a woman choose what she wants to do with the pregnancy. Being more informed about this topic will allow the audience to understand where both sides might stem from, and how the political rhetoric associated with abortion affects women of all backgrounds. Too often is the fetus the only concern of the abortion debate. Whether someone is “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” they care more about being politically correct over truly considering what it is they are arguing about. Those who are anti-abortion have a sort of tunnel vision, strictly centering in on caring about the life inside of the womb. Those who are for abortion get so wrapped up in trying to convince others they are right somehow that they often forget themselves what they support: The woman. In a New York Times article titled “The Women the Abortion War Leaves Out” by Michelle Oberman, she

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sheds light on the women that are not being taken into consideration when abortion is being talked about. Oberman goes on to discuss that women decide to terminate a pregnancy for several different reasons, not because they just do not want a baby. “Women face the surprise of an unplanned pregnancy as if on train tracks, with a locomotive barreling toward them. The only variation lies in how many other trains are coming from other directions. Homelessness, violence, addiction and the biggest of all: poverty” (Oberman). Those who are anti-abortion claim to care so much about the fetus, yet do nothing to support the mother who is the reason the fetus is still kicking. Those who are pro-abortion claim to care about the woman, yet do nothing to help her further. What can be done to overcome political correctness and provide women of all backgrounds the attention they need? The National Abortion Federation, a non-profit organization, is a collection of other pro-choice organizations dedicated to providing safe and legal abortions. They support the women in their care and provide them with information to further help with the abortion process. It is important to educate and advocate as well. In an article titled "Making Women the Subjects of the Abortion Debate: A Class Exercise That Moves Beyond ‘Pro-Choice’ and ‘Pro-Life’" by Sara Crawley, a class exercise is conducted in a college classroom that removes politics from the issue of abortion and solely focuses on how we can better care for women regardless of whether or not they decide to terminate the pregnancy. “So for either question, we might get several responses regarding pregnancy prevention, including available and complete sex education (i.e., not emphasizing abstinence-only education), widely available and affordable contraception, counseling,

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and so on, or a series of responses focused on choosing childbirth as a positive option without negative moral implications, including affordable birth options, better pre- and post-birth medical care for mothers and children, affordable day care, family counseling for both parents, encouragement for men to participate in child care (not just regarded as an income source), and so on” (Crawley). The students soon realized that when they took politics out of the equation and focused more on improving the lives of women, those who were for and against abortion agreed on a lot of the same policies for better overall healthcare. There was no name-calling, no self-defeat, no “I’m right, you’re wrong and that’s that” mentality… Only shifting the discussion. Even back in the 90s, the abortion war still raged on, and contempt against those who supported abortion ran high. In an article titled “Love and Goodness: Toward a New Abortion Politics” by Jeannie Ludlow, an independent abortion provider by the name of Charlotte Taft grew tired of the anti-abortion protests outside her clinic. She disliked greatly the hatred spewed at each woman that walked through those doors. “If we want to make real change, on the cultural level, we must shift our messaging to refuse the easy binarization of prochoice/prolife and to counter abortion stigmatization. I ask readers to imagine the emancipatory potential of stigma-canceling, lollypop-colored banners reading ‘Every day, good women choose abortion’ and ‘When you come here, bring only love’ gathered outside legislative chambers and hospitals, as well as clinics” (Ludlow). She wants us to realize that amongst all the arguing from both sides, women already have the weight of the world on their shoulders, dealing with an unplanned

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pregnancy as well as fearing ridicule from others. “In 2011, the Abortion Care Network made available to clinics and counselors a handout titled ‘You Are a Good Woman.’ The handout, written for abortion patients to help counter stigmatization, reads, in part, ‘You are a good woman. It may be hard for you to believe that right now, but deep in your heart you know you are making your decision out of a place of goodness.’ The handout addresses anti-abortion stigmatization tactics, social stigmatization, and personal shame, and it validates the woman's feelings (whatever they may be) and honors her needs and obligations” (Ludlow). An abortion is not an easy thing to go through, and Ludlow wants us to bring love and goodness back into the discussion; to put these women into the spotlight instead of making it about left- and right-wing views. But there are many people who believe that life starts in the womb, and to abort that life is wrong. Whether that belief stems from morals, religion, or simply someone’s upbringing, there are people who value the life of the fetus and think pregnancies should be carried out to full term. In an article titled “Science Is Giving the Pro-Life Movement a Boost,” by Emma Green, science is being used to better support their view. “Last summer, Vincent Reid, a professor of psychology at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, published a paper showing that late-development fetuses prefer to look at face-like images while they’re in the womb, just like newborn infants. As Reid told The Atlantic’s Ed Yong, the study ‘tells us that the fetus isn’t a passive processor of environmental information. It’s an active responder’” (Green). For awhile, the pro-choice side of things was nothing but facts and logic. The pro-life side was nothing but religion

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and morals. Now, both sides are arguing with science at their fingertips, which is heating up the debate more than ever before. So what is their goal? Why are they pro-life? According to the Pro-Life Action League, a pro-life organization, “He  [Scheilder] founded the Pro-Life Action League in 1980 to recruit and equip local pro-life leaders to save babies from abortion in their own communities. Joe has traveled the United States and the world sharing his message that individual pro-lifers can make a tremendous difference by taking direction action to fight the abortion industry, stand up to pro-abortion politicians, offer compassionate help to women considering abortion, and convert their friends and neighbors to the pro-life cause” (prolifeaction.org). Pro-life organizations such as this one have personal and moral obligations to provide help toward women looking to terminate their pregnancy and convince others that life begins in the womb. Regardless of what you believe in, the abortion debate continues to center around politics. From the information I gathered, however, the pro-choice side seems to care more about the woman’s well-being rather than the pro-life side. There will still be pro-abortion and anti-abortion, but it is possible to bring women into the discussion too. When it is boiled down, I can clearly see which side I support more and can confidently take a stance. Although, it would help to conduct research on the different abortion processes and stages of pregnancy to further provide more insight, seeing as that could help me to understand the different viewpoints of each side and how science plays a part. After all, one cannot take a stance without facts and adequate information. It  would also be beneficial to broaden this topic even further by researching how a man plays

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into the role of abortion because although women are the ones that carry the fetus, men help to conceive it.

Works Cited

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Crawley, Sara L., et al. "Making Women the Subjects of the Abortion Debate: A Class Exercise That Moves beyond “Pro-Choice” and “Pro-Life”." Feminist Teacher, vol. 19, no. 3, June 2009, pp. 227-240. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/ftr.0.0051. Accessed March 18, 2018 Green, Emma. “Science Is Giving the Pro-Life Movement a Boost.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 18 Jan. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/pro-life-pro-science/549308/. Accessed April 3, 2018. “Home.” National Abortion Federation, prochoice.org/. Accessed March 12, 2018. Ludlow, Jeannie. "Love and Goodness: Toward a New Abortion Politics." Feminist Studies, vol. 38, no. 2, n.d., pp. 474-483. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.uakron.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=edswss&AN=000309784300008&site=eds-live. Accessed March 18, 2018. Oberman, Michelle. “The Women the Abortion War Leaves Out.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/opinion/sunday/abortion-crisis-pregnancy-centers. html. Accessed March 13, 2018. “Pro-Life Action League.” Pro-Life Action League, prolifeaction.org/. Accessed April 2, 2018....