Samantha Liz

Professor Samantha Bellamy

English 210

April 2,2020

 

 

When it comes to making decisions the government always gets the final say especially when it comes to women’s rights. There are many examples like immigration, gun usage, gay marriage, and so much more but one that stand out the most that targets women right is abortion. Abortion is a way for a woman to terminate a pregnancy and it can be for different reasons. Many people believe abortion should be legal because there can be a reason behind the termination of the pregnancy but others think that if you terminate a pregnancy you are committing murder.

The debate keeps going on and on but the fact of the matter is that either way a women right is at stake and will have more of a chance to be taken away especially since republicans believe that abortion is murder. If you didn’t know the United States deals with two parties the Democrats and Republicans. Republicans support the perspective of pro-choice because they believe the baby is consider a human once they woman finds out they are pregnant and if they terminate a baby you are committing murder. Democrats take on the pro-life perspective because they believe that a baby is alive once the mother gives birth so it’s not considered murder. Since it became such a big debate between republicans and democrats and we have republican as our main leaders’ abortion is becoming illegal which means a woman right to make that decision for themselves is being taken away.

According to an article “ Arkansas now has the strictest abortion law in the United States”, the author Karen Ann Gajeswki states “On March 6, the Republican controlled state legislature overrode Democratic Mike Beebe’s veto of the Human Heartbeat Protection Act, which bans most abortion after the twelfth week of pregnancy”(line 1-4). While this was a case between Democratic and Republicans this article is directed towards women. Why? That is because a women’s choice is taken away from them. Gajewski proceeds to state “(it does not include exemptions in case of rape, incest, and when the mother’s life is in danger or the fetus is diagnosed with an extremely serious disorder)” (line 4-6). The law that was created which bans abortion only goes against women who don’t have a “purpose” for it meaning if you want to have an abortion due to not being ready or being too young then it wont happen because you can only receive an abortion due to rape, or if your life or the baby in your belly is in danger.

While the pro-life activist care for the woman emotional health, they might not be seeing an issue that can be bigger than that. One story that speaks out that Uma Mishra-Newbery and Jaime Todd-Gher wrote about in a news article called “Abortion Bans Strip People of Their Human Right. Here’s Why We Must Stand in Solidarity Against Them”, is about a woman who almost committed suicide because she couldn’t get the abortion done. Mishra-Newberry and Todd-Gher states “One of the most harrowing stories is that of ‘Ms Y’, a woman who was granted asylum in Ireland after being beaten and raped by paramilitaries in her own country. Ms Y tried to kill herself several times when she was told she could not end her pregnancy, which was a result of rape”(paragraph 3 line 2-6). As mentioned previously if a woman was raped or has any health problems during her pregnancy, the pregnancy should be terminated but this women pregnancy wasn’t which lead her to the thought of committing suicide. The authors then proceed to state “ She was eventually forced to give birth by C-section. At every step of the way, the Irish authorizes concern for the protection of the fetus trumped any consideration of Ms Y’s mental and physical health”( paragraph 3 line 6-9). Not only did she had the thought of committing suicide but she also with mental and physical health issues one being trauma. Even though this particular story didn’t take place in the United states it is clear that it is something happening worldwide and its affecting women from all around the world.

Sometimes when it comes to a women’s decision on whether or not they should have an abortion is not just because of rape it can be because of many different reasons .According to a book fact sheet called “ Facts on induced abortion in the United States”, the unknown author states “The reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life”(bullet 12 line 1-2). A big reason for a woman to start thinking about an abortion is because responsibility reason. The unknown author proceeds to state “Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner” (bullet 12 line 2-6). A women’s decision is mostly based on how their life is going at the moment. The mother may not be financially stable for themselves that it can affect the baby, or the mother may just not have time for the baby because of a job or school. There’s always another option when it comes to situations like these like abortion, but labor is pain and mi sure that no women would want to go through all that pain just to give their child away.

If it was up to me and if I was a part of the government, I would allow the people mainly women to make this decision for themselves. People may say that I am being biased because I am a woman but at the end of the day with our decisions being made our rights are being taken away. When women were given the chance to vote it changed life because it gave women power but with our decision to decide on abortion being take our power is also being taken away. As time goes on people think back to what life used to be and think that women don’t deserve power and only deserve to be home working. People need to stop thinking about the past and focus on the present.

I will end up doing more research because soon our president may change depending on what the United States decides on. It’s important to keep yourself up to date because you don’t want to ever find yourself in a lawsuit. Always be aware of what our government is doing because we all want to be safe and never be in trouble.

 

MLA Citation:

• (magazine) Gajewski, Karen Ann. “Arkansas now has the strictest abortion law in the United States.” The Humanist, May-June 2013, p. 48. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A329066375/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=7e1cf0a9
• Mishra-Newbery, Uma and Todd-Gher, Jaime.” Abortion Bans Strip People of Their Human Rights. Here’s Why We Must Stand in Solidarity Against Them” Time, September 27,2019.

https://time.com/5684858/international-safe-abortion-day/

• “Facts on induced abortion in the United States.” Fact Sheets, Guttmacher Institute, 2008. Gale Academic OneFile,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A200343117/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=1dcad5b4.