A Woman’s Right: Abortion
According to Edward Abbey, “Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.” Abortion should ultimately be the decision of the mother who is carrying the child, and the government should have no say in what the mother can or cannot do with her own body. There are various scenarios where a woman needs the option of having an abortion. However, there must be strict medical guidelines placed for those who seek an abortion, so that unsafe abortions do not occur. That being said, even though there should be some government regulation of abortion practices, government funding should not be provided for abortions because it will simply
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If she becomes pregnant, she should not be forced to have the child of her rapist. This would further harm her psychological health if she was forced to have that child. A woman needs to have this option especially if a young teenager or teenager is raped and becomes pregnant. Those girls should not have the burden to go through that painful process. Many women want to have an abortion “because they want to be mothers to the children they already have” (Berer 2000, 581). If the family is not in the financial state to support another child, then the mother should be able to decide if she wants to keep the child. This is often seen in Third-World countries; because of the issue of sexual assaults and financial instability, many countries around the world have begun to liberalize abortion laws.
As stated, there are many reasons why a woman may need the option to have an abortion; however, if the abortion practices are not safe, then there is no point to risk having an abortion. In order for abortion practices to be safe, “changing the law does matter and assertions to the contrary are ill-conceived and unsupported in practice” (Berer 2000, 582). Laws must be changed in order for safe abortions to occur. Abortions have been going on for centuries, however they often used to cause harm to the mother. Since we are now scientifically sound, we can provide safe, abortions that do not put a risk to the mother. If abortion is not legalized, that does not mean that conducting
She was a mother, a moral and political philosopher, a writer, and a feminist. Mary Wollstonecraft was the ideal image of what represented the push towards modern feminism. Some may even consider her as the founding mother of modern feminism itself. Much of Wollstonecraft’s literature is influenced by her own life experiences. In 1785, Wollstonecraft took on an employment opportunity as a governess. While spending most of her time there, she had a moment of epiphany where she realized that she was not suited for domestic work. Soon after, she returned to London and became a translator and wrote for a well-known publisher and discovered her love of writing. Eventually, years later she was then able to publish her most notable work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is still a very popular book which can be seen as a guide to becoming a better citizen and understanding feminism in a critical context. This essay will argue that Mary Wollstonecraft is still relevant to the feminist cause today as her views portrayed in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman are still relatable to many of the feminist issues that currently exist around the world. This essay will do so by comparing how her views in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman can still be used as guiding principles to tackle feminist matters.
In the case of rape, it is unjustifiable to say that a woman has to carry a baby when she is forced into intercourse with a man who the woman does not please. For those who say that abortion is so inhumane, why doesn’t one simply look at the act of rape as disgusting as someone would look at abortion. The victim is going through enough being forced without choice to have a child if she consumes, so why make her carry the baby for 9 months knowing that the perpetrator has given her this child. I don’t think that the women should have to be mentally viable for this child or have to take care of a child that is forced upon her own will. Having a child hurts very much, why put a victim of rape through more pain then she has to endure? Abortion isn’t illegal in other countries for more serious issues why should America make it illegal?
When a rape or family pregnancy happens it is a true crime. Making a woman carry the child full term would cause more harm to the woman. There are women out there that are too afraid to go to the police or to a hospital about a rape. Some choose to wait a few weeks after finding out and go in saying they just don’t the child. Some women don’t find out about the pregnancy until it is too late and have to choose abort after 13 weeks or carry to full term.”Only one percent of abortions happen from rape victims. (2) “
In the article “Should Abortion be Legal in Cases of Rape” it mentioned, “Why should the woman have to suffer twice? She was already raped, and now you're telling her she should have to be stuck with an unwanted child?” This problem is not ok! Women that get raped and become pregnant should not have to keep the child if they are not capable of taking care of the child. Some women get raped as young as 12. At 12 or even 13 girls will not be ready to take on the full responsibility for a
Have you ever wondered why women have the rights that they have today and not have to be the way women were supposed to be before? The beginning of all changes started in 1848 and lasted not just till 1920 but even until today. Many leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steimem and Sojourner Truth at the time were supported by both men and women to encourage women to conquer sexism and claim their rights. The whole purpose of the movement is to gain equality for all women. In 1972, Judy Brady wrote an essay “Why I Want a Wife” to reach out to all her readers that men want perfect wives to do everything for them. This essay by Judy Brady motivated the Women’s Rights Movement.
The United States of America is one of the most powerful developed countries in the world, with a strong economic and political stand in the international stage. Unfortunately, from all of the shine, there are spots of rust. The United States faces internal issues, such as education, foreign relations, and most importantly social policies. Recently, the United States has started to discuss more about how women in the labor market, are receiving a lower amount of payment, compared to men. This not only includes regular jobs, but high paying jobs as well, for example CEO’s. In this paper, I would like to discuss about how the International Labour Organization (ILO) discussed on the issues of women’s rights in the labor force and how they should be treated, and see if this is applicable to the United States based on the recommendation of the ILO.
If abortion laws become harder women will still seek dangerous methods to obtain an abortion. Abortion is a very delicate procedure which should be performed by a skilled professional. If abortion becomes harder to obtain there will be a dangerous market of false abortion methods that can be highly harmful the mother carrying the fetus. As said by Obama "Motherhood must never be punishment for having sexual intercourse." (Pickert). It is not for either the mother or child to be in an unwanted environment for something she should clearly have a choice over.
One of the most influential writers Adrienne Rich once said, “She is afraid that her own truths are not good enough.” Adrienne Rich talks about women’s role and issues in her essay called “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying”. She describes how women during the 1977 lied about everything. They lied about their appearance, their job, their happiness, and even about their relationship. Adrienne Rich is one of the most powerful writers, who identifies herself as lesbian feminists. Her work has been acknowledged and appreciated mainly in her poems. Throughout her decades of work as a writer-activist, Rich uses essays, speeches, and conference papers, magazine, articles book reviews, and personal reflection to articulate with
Even as far back as the United States independence, women did not possess any civil rights. According to Janda, this view is also known as protectionism, the notion that women mush be sheltered from life's harsh realities. Protectionism carried on throughout the general populations view for many decades until the 1920's when the women's movement started. Women finally received the right to vote in the Nineteenth Amendment. The traditional views of protectionism, however, remained in people's minds until the 1970's (Janda et al, 2000: 538-539).
In addition, no one should be required by law to risk own health, and yet at the complete prohibition of abortion, many pregnant women are exposed to the dangers of childbearing and childbirth, as well as unsafe criminal abortions.
As I previously mentioned, for this country, feminism is essential to protect the rights that have already been established and to continue promoting women’s rights. The United States is more feminist than ever, I would say; we have a woman running for president, equal pay, the right to vote, etc. Because of this I didn’t see recent major problems with women equality in an economics aspect but that changed when I viewed the human trafficking conference. However, I feel compelled to explain first why I didn’t think there is equality between women and men. My family is very male dominant, which maybe is why I saw things differently although; my mom was a very independent hard working single mother that succeeded in life. Why my views favored men was because I have seen how some women take advantage of women’s rights for example, a male cousin of mine lost his opportunity for a job
More importantly a woman should have the right to terminate her pregnancy due to the fact of the possibility that that child was conceived through rape or incest. A woman should never have to give birth or raise a child that was forced upon her. Abortions had by victims of rape only account for .5% of the United States’ abortions. Although the percentage of abortions that happen because of rape victims is very slim it still should be an option to all women who may ever need this. Carrying the child of a man who forced sexual intercourse upon a woman could be very emotionally detrimental to her mental health. Depending on how the woman feels about it she should have right to make that choice for her own sake. Furthermore, a woman who is carrying a child with a major disability should have every right to determine whether she wants to carry this child full term or to terminate the pregnancy. Raising a kid that would barely ever be able to function in life is a very challenging, 24 hour 7 days a week, task. Who knows what the outcome would be anyway. Some children with
America was built on the ideas of equality and freedom yet men have tended to be in the dominant position. We grew up in america believing that everything's equal, that everyone was equal. The children of today run around believing everything they hear, little do they hear about the past. Teachers teach more of our war history little do you hear a teacher tell her second grade students that there was a point in time that if you got married to a man you would become civilly dead in the eyes of the law. In elizabeth cady stanton's “from declaration of sentiments of the seneca falls woman's rights convention” talks about the 1800s into the early 1900s on the topic of women's rights. This similar topic comes up in the text from Mark Twain “The Lowest Animal” how not only to women but disrespecting animals. America has all of this push for freedom
Legalized abortion gives women a relief because they know that they are the owners of their body and control it and give consent or don’t give consent to an abortion. If a woman becomes raped and unfortunately becomes pregnant, she won’t feel obligated to keep a baby from a stranger or from a psychopath who rapes random women. The raped victim also might not like the idea of carrying a child from which she was raped because she will constantly be reminded that she was raped and once again feel the endless pain. In the article, Humiliation, Degradation, Penetration”, it is mentioned how females who have been raped feel that it is unjust and psychologically unfair to keep the baby from a rape incident (Green 2013). Additionally, incest, the act of
The eighteenth century brought about a great deal of change and a new-found interest in science and reason. Because of this, many great inventions, ideas and innovative theorists arose from this time period. Among them was a forward-thinking essayist by the name of Mary Wollstonecraft. In her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft preaches her belief that the oppression of women is largely due to lack of female education. Although the term "feminism" wasn’t coined until decades later, Wollstonecraft paved the way for future women’s rights movements by advocating equality in education for women. She believed men and women should be equal in the very basic aspects of life, such as in loyalty in marriage. Wollstonecraft