Discussion Blog Seven
"Reproductive choice involves being able to have safe and affordable birthing and parenting options: reliable, safe, affordable birth control technologies; freedom from forced sterilizations; and the availablity of abotion" (246, Shaw & Lee). Beyond that, I think we all have come to realize that women should be able to make choices about their current and future lives. Yet, if we have come to recognize the freedom women should have, is it fair to debate abortion (or someone else's right to a legal and safe abortion) based on one's own personal feelings and beliefs? For example lets take the Catholic church. Is it possible to be a feminist as well as a Catholic? Can members of this church choose to say no to abortion personally while understanding the reasons why another woman would have an abortion? And honestly, can we afford for abortion to be against the law? For as we have read, "Because if we look back through history or even around the world today and ask “What will women do if/when they don't have access to legal abortion?” The answer is: they will have an abortion. Even.If.It.Is.Illegal." I honestly can never see abortion being a topic of discussion that everyone will be able to sit down and discuss nicely. There are those people who think abortion is a women's reproductive right, those who think abortion is flat out murder, and those who fall inbetween the lines who are stuck in a shade of gray. How does this affect what is going on with women in the world who are having abortions? Honestly, how do you think they feel? Sometimes, regardless of our own personal opionions, I think our feeling can be biased; yet even so, abortion and a women's reproductive rights should not be a topic of discussion that are taken lightly, not in the slightest.
Abortion. This one word has divided our world into pro-choice and pro-life. The word alone inspires fear, anger, hatred, doubt, and many, many questions. What are the rights of the unborn child, at what point is it considered a human being? Should the mother be allowed to make the decision to have an abortion without the opinion of the father or the consent of her parents if she is underage? Who will pay for this procedure and how much will it cost? But all questions come second to the question of how abortion will affect the lives of women? The only people directly involved in this process are women so it is only fair that they have the most say in their reproductive lives. In order to understand the true need for cheap and safe abortions everyone must sit down and contemplate what the world for both men and women would be like with and without abortions. Create an overview of these two worlds, equally examining all sides of the situation from different prospective. Think of the pros, cons, causes, and effects and then draw a conclusion about the necessity of abortion. Challenge those around to do the same and raise awareness for improved women’s health care and education.
Currently, there has been much debating, politcally, about a man's right to "choose." If a woman decides not to have a child after she becomes pregnant, she can simply choose to have an abortion. If the father of the child wanted to care for it, he still has virtually no say in the matter. Meanwhile, if the roles were changed - mother wanting the child, father not wanting the child - the father can be forced, by law, to at least provide for the child financially. Does this imbalance seem fair? Is this situation biased, or is there a sense of leverage? Should men be given more authority over the fate of their children and should they be given more freedom in determining their own accountability?
