The Influence Of Abortion On Women

In a time fraught with hot button issues, one that polarizes perhaps more than any other is that of abortion. Unfortunately, it is also an issue that is difficult to write about while remaining unbiased. Paul Stark’s “How Abortion Hurts Women” and Sarah Barnes’ “The Long Term Effects of Abortion on Women” both set out to prove that abortion has serious side effects on the affected party. Both Stark and Barnes cite several studies done in both America and abroad to support their claims, as well as, in Barnes case, offering their own insights on the matter. It seems that both authors purpose is to enlighten their audiences on the under-reported effects of abortion on women in order to spark a new conversation that doesn’t center around the unborn

Over the history of time women were not allowed to have prominent roles and rights in society. Through history and time women have fought for the right to vote, to work for equal pay, the women’s suffrage, gaining property rights, and much more. The first women’s right movement in the United States of America, which started in the 1830s, arose from the campaign too end slavery. Many things such as evangelical Christianity, the abolitionist critique to slavery, and debates about the place of women in the abolitionist movement played valuable roles in the development of the antebellum women’s right movement. These efforts and large steps that women took to destroy and tear down the walls that limited them from having a voice still resonates today.

Given the way in which the social climate of the early 1800's was set, women were expected to bow down to men and their husbands, implicitly  doing as they were told. Women began getting tired of not having a say and not having their voices heard, only able to do as they were told. So they decided to start a movement, this movement has become to be known as the women's suffrage movement. These women who participated in the movement had a long and hard fight. In the early 1800's until the early 1900's women stood up and fought for their rights, what they believed in and what they felt they were entitled to. For years women had been left out of all decisions. They had few property rights, faced educational and employment barriers; they also

Abortion can have several effects on the society. Some may be noticeable, and others less. Abortion increases the amount of unintended pregnancies and deaths, and can affect the economy due to low birth rates (Dailard, 2001). Legalizing abortion reduces the consequences of having a child which increases the amount of sexual activity (Dailard, 2001). This results in the large number of children being conceived than there would have been if abortion wasn’t as available (Dailard, 2001). Some women who have unintended pregnancies will seek out an abortion regardless of its legal situation, even if it can put their lives in danger (Dailard 2001). In many countries where abortion is illegal, women tend to get abortions at a very high rate (Dailard, 2001). It is estimated there are around six-hundred-thousand pregnancy related deaths, and out of those, there were seventy-eight-thousand that are caused by complications due to unsafe abortions (Dailard, 2001). As the death rates increase, the birthrates decrease. As shown in a study in New Zealand, in some developing countries, abortion is leading to lower birthrates (“Impact of Abortion on Society”). Those lower birthrates can lead to a decrease in sales (“Impact of Abortion on Society”). In the twenty-two years leading up to 1999, there were over two-hundred thousand abortions, which led to the fewer sales of children items (“Impact of Abortion on Society”). As abortion has not severely effected society

Women were starting to make progression in equality in terms of jobs and pay but still lacked to reform on issues that surrounded women and control they lacked in society over their bodies. One of the first things protested was the Miss America contest. The selection of Miss America still painted women to be as men and society thought they should be. Women said Miss America was oppressive and as a result they threw their bras, eyelashes, and any other product of women’s garbage into a “freedom trashcan.” While these women were working to change the physical view of women, others were working changing the rights of women. One of the bigger issues that surround women’s bodies and their rights was abortion. During this time about one million abortions were preformed every year but only about ten thousand were actually legal. If you had money abortions or other resources were available to you, yet if you were poor there wasn’t much support and your options were extremely limited. Poorer women often ended up in hospitals post illegal abortions due to injury or infection. Women wanted to decided weather to have or not have a baby without government interference. Finally, the supreme court ruled that abortions could be preformed before the last three months of pregnancy. Child care centers were also something that hadn’t been provided previously. Now child care centers were

Abortion is a controversial debate in the United States that divides the nation and still plays a significant role at election time. The Democratic Party supports abortion rights and keeping elective abortions legal because they believe in the privacy and equality of women. They believe that a woman must have the right to choose regardless of her ability to pay. “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade.”1 For example, Bernie Sanders, as a Democratic candidate, said, "I happen to believe that it is wrong for the government to be telling a woman what to be doing with her own body."2 On the other hand, Republicans say the unborn child has a fundamental right to live and they support a human life amendment to the Constitution. They believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned and abortions should not be legal.3 Donald Trump, as a Republican candidate, has suggested that if abortion is criminalized, women should receive some type of punishment if they secure an abortion. The President of the United States can has many effects on federal abortion policy. Most important of all, the President has the power to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court. For instance, Obama and Clinton appoint justices who will uphold the present abortion laws that allow abortions. Also, the President may sign or veto legislation related to abortion like President Bush has signed “the Partial-Birth Abortion

Finer, L. B., Frohwirth, L. F., Dauphinee, L. A., Singh, S., & Moore, A. M. (2005). Reasons U.S. women have abortions: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 37(3), 110-8.

Believe it or not, women were not always entitled to abortion. Until 1973, when it became legalized, women would terminate their pregnancies through dangerous methods. Some included back alley abortions or at home procedures. Unfortunately, most of these ended in complete disaster, leaving women injured or needing medical attention. Since abortion was an unsafe option overall, it seems that women would stop fighting for the cause, but despite the potential peril they continued their fight. The idea that abortion creates emotional scars and is a risk to women's health, is what troubles many young adults considering it.

The battle for woman's rights was intense, they had to Shake off the age-old expectation that their only role was to serve as wives and mothers. Women entered the workforce in large numbers, became more involved politically, won the privilege to vote, and fought for a constitutional amendment for equal rights between men and women. The movement was to make birth control widely available to women so they weren’t stuck at home raising child after child, it sought to overcome laws making it illegal for women to get birth control devices and information about birth control.

"There has to be some form of punishment”, stated republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, when asked about his views on abortion and the women who choose to get them. It’s interesting how the only person Mr. Trump would punish is women; not the man who helped her get pregnant or the doctor who performed the abortion. Amongst the many attacks women face over their right to make health care choices for themselves, statements like these mirrors America’s deeply entrenched patriarchal views about women’s role in our society. Reproductive health programing in the U.S. focusses on empowering women and increasing women’s access to care. However, this approach does little to change societal views that impact women’s health daily. To tackle traditional beliefs about sex and sexual health, research suggest that transformative approaches to reproductive health promotion are most effective (Barker, 2007). This approach attempts to change the current ideology surrounding gender roles in hopes of creating more gender equitable relationships and better health outcomes for men and women. It’s time for reproductive health promotion in the U.S. to take a more transformative approach; an approach that will improve gender relations and make views like Mr. Trumps’ fade into the abyss of American history.

“I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception…. I submit that human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood and that any interruption at any point throughout this time constitutes a termination of human life…. I am no more prepared to say that these early stages [of development in the womb] represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty…is not a human being. This is human life at every stage” (Bongioanni). Furthermore, to pro-life campaigners women who proceed with abortion are murderers for killing a life. For example, “the changes occurring between implantation, a six-week embryo, a six-month fetus, a one-week-old child, or a mature adult are merely stages of development and maturation. The majority of our group could find no point in time between the union of sperm and egg, or at least the blastocyst stage, and the birth of the

To highlight the overwhelming gendered effect on abortion, I want you to imagine yourself as a cis male. You’ve gone to a hospital because you had been feeling unwell due to poor dieting choice and following a routine blood test, doctors found that you were a perfect match for another patient with kidney disease. Suppose the doctor put you under anesthesia, and the next morning you found yourself connected, not to the violinist, but to a child that you did not know you fathered. The only way your child will survive is if his circulatory system is plugged into your system due to matching blood types. Your connection to the child is biological, yet you haven’t developed any social bonds yet.

On March 2, 1873, the Comstock Act was passed which “forbade the sending through the mails of any drug or medicine or any article whatever for the prevention of conception” (Case Western University, 2010). Although this act did not focus on fertility, it remained as a statute for birth control. Birth control and abortion were both considered obscenities (Case Western University, 2010). The Comstock Laws declared family planning and contraception illegal and obscene (Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 2014).

"There has to be some form of punishment”, exclaimed republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, when asked about his views on abortion and the women who get them. It’s interesting how the only person Mr. Trump would punish is women; not the man who helped her get pregnant or the doctor who performed the abortion. Amongst the many attacks women face from politicians, religious groups, and pro-life organizations, statements like these mirrors America’s deeply entrenched patriarchal views about women’s role in our society, especially when it comes to reproductive health. Reproductive health programing in the U.S, which mainly focuses on women’s access, reflects these views by implying that reproductive health is the responsibility of women while men are allowed to be sexual promiscuous without judgement. To tackle traditional beliefs about sex and sexual health, research suggest that transformative approaches to reproductive health promotion are most effective (Barker, 2007). This approach attempts to change the current ideology surrounding gender roles in hopes of creating more gender equitable relationships and better health outcomes for men and women. It’s time for reproductive health promotion in the U.S. to take a more transformative approach on gender relations; an approach that will make views like Mr. Trumps’, fade into the abyss of American history.

Although I consider myself an introvert and a homebody, I would not live and isolated life for one year. While I do not think that I would be bothered by the lack of daily physical human interaction I would want some way to contact others via phone, e-mail, or internet. I also feel that 1 million dollars is too low of an amount to ask someone to leave everything behind. While all of the basic essentials that you would need to live in a place alone are provided I do not think that I would enjoy being that isolated from the outside world. The idea of living somewhere without any neighbors is nice however, I would still like to be connected to the outside world in one way or another. Even though I rarely utilize programs such as skype or facetime, knowing that these services would no longer be available for me to connect with those who I am not physically able to be around is not something that I would enjoy. I am fully aware of the fact that there was once a time when these services were not available for anyone to use however, even taking away something as simple as a landline phone for 1 million dollars is not an offer that I would like to take up. I also think that being completely isolated would lead me to think about certain things for too long and potentially lead me to insanity.