Placing Women's Rights

Placing the Rights of a Woman before the Views of Politicians

An incredibly controversial topic, abortion has always possessed a significant portion of media coverage, predating the infamous 1973 court case Roe v. Wade, which established the law permitting women “safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical practitioners” (“History of Abortion). However, the desire to virtually ban all abortions, regardless of circumstance or economical standing, is resurfacing in the republican party’s platform and on the lips of many politicians. Personal bias is beginning to interfere, yet again, with women’s efforts to reclaim the rights to control one’s own life and body. Irrespective of outrageous arguments posed by unempathetic politicians, safe,

One argument continuously expounded upon is that abortion is horrendous, so it is “reasonable for society to expect an adult to live temporarily with an inconvenience” (“The Rights of a Woman”). The claim stated is that, even if a woman does not see herself as capable of having a child, she should do so anyways because caring for a child is only a troublesome, minute period of life. Such an absurd argument caves in on itself in various diverse ways. It declares, not only, that a child is “an inconvenience,” but that the effects and life centered on said child is “temporary.” Childbirth is far from temporary in both the aspect of its effect on the mother and the literal amount of time that must be put aside for parenthood. In the healthiest relationships between mother and child, the youth will be with his or her guardian for, more or less, eighteen full years, excluding the connections to the mother that may continue past adolescence. Aside from the concept that parenthood is a momentary period in a parent’s life, the argument attempts to claim that children are no more than inconveniences. If a mother truly despises the concept of nurturing a child and sees the situation as a nuisance, then that mother should never be forced to carry a pregnancy to term. It is rather clear that a mother in such a situation is not precisely suited to be the best caregiver. Similarly, yet another opinion imposed upon women by a large amount of lawmakers is the belief that an abortion is simply a way to “conduct [one’s] sex life without thought and responsibility” and that it “delivers [people] from the consequences of [their] own actions” (Kucera). Kucera’s assertion that an abortion is solely an easy method of undoing one’s seemingly careless mistake