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Reproductive Rights For Women

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The fundamental idea of equal treatment for women and men under the law largely diverges in areas concerning women’s bodies. The legislature has been constructed using masculine narratives as the legal norm, which only serves to further marginalise women in areas concerning reproduction, or lack thereof. Pregnancy brings with it restricted bodily autonomy and a reduction of basic human rights, with the woman’s primary purpose shifting to that of being the person responsible for maintaining the life of the fetus. As men have been used as the baseline in the legislative system, women’s bodies, especially in relation to reproductive rights, have become the subject of public discourse over legal control. Law has developed within a patriarchal …show more content…

In the past decade, there has been a surge in the number of laws passed or introduced that explicitly treat the fetus as having a legal identity and create barriers to abortion access, such as requiring extended waiting periods or enacting qualifications that force clinics to shut down (Barnes; Bassett; Daniels). Reproductive laws are increasingly interpreted in such a way that treats the fetus as an individual, autonomous person with basic rights (Daniels; Newswire). Such reproductive legislation is often used a means of control; by granting the fetus legal rights, the state is ultimately acting in favor of masculine perspectives, and serves as a means of subordinating women (Barnes; Ford; Newswire). The characterisation of women as objects requiring protection ultimately reduces them to irrational beings whose inability to care for themselves requires medical control and legal regulation. Women are socially pressured into continuing a pregnancy, and are punished by society for exercising their right to terminate. The law subjects women to mandated ultrasounds, waiting periods, and required counseling as methods of coercing women into submitting to an unwanted pregnancy (Bassett; Daniels; Newswire). Reproductive restrictions place heavy burdens on women that are not placed on men, to the point that women’s …show more content…

While pro-choice women have fought for progressive reproductive rights, the issue with the feminist ideology has largely been in the idea that gender is shaped purely by identity rather than biology (Bedolla; Beckwith, et al.; Ford). By campaigning for legislation that treats women as intrinsically equal to men, women’s distinct needs are not being met. Reproduction is a gendered variable that the legislature should justifiably take into account, yet legislation has been passed without consideration for gender differences; consequently, reproductive laws are most often designed with the purpose of restricting access to abortion (Barnes; Daniels; Ptacin). As an intersectional issue, abortion and contraceptive restrictions only serve to cause further social and economic hardships for minority women. Given that the existing social structures inherently empower men and disempower women, biological and social aspects are inextricably linked in such a way that poor women and women of color face the greatest ramifications of forced pregnancy (Bedolla; Ford; Ronan). Historically, women who have been unable to access a medical abortion have resorted to termination through any means necessary, and women now face increasingly more barriers to abortion access, as well as a limited availability of services necessary to maintain a healthy

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In her pilgrimage to fight for women’s rights, activist Margaret Sanger created a speech on a severely controversial topic not only during her time period, but during our present time period as well. While many firmly disagreed with her and still do, she did bring to light a major disparity between sexes and social classes. By vocalizing her qualms with the rights of women, mainly in the middle and lower classes, to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not. By voicing her opinions in an extremely misogynistic era she made herself a totem in women’s history. Women do have a right to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not.

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Margaret worked as a visiting nurse in the impoverished neighborhoods of New York City’s Lower East Side. After working with numerous patients that were poor, immigrant women suffering the health consequences of botched abortions and repeated pregnancies (“Margaret Sanger,” n.d.). Seeing women suffer was the catalyst which brought about her belief that the ability to limit family size was an essential component to maintaining women’s health and breaking the cycle of poverty. Therefore, Margaret redirected her attention from nursing to advocating for the use and legalization of birth control and contraceptives (Margaret Sanger,” n.d.). During this time, it was illegal to provide contraceptives information due to the Comstock Act passed by Congress in 1873.

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Where should the parameters surrounding women’s reproductive rights lie? The dystopian future book Unwind by Neal Shusterman discusses the aftermath of a war fought around a woman’s right to choose. The Heartland War, also commonly known as the Second Civil War, was fought by the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice armies. To end the war and settle the issue, a set of amendments to the Constitution called the Bill of Life was passed, which stated that human life cannot be touched from the time of conception until the age of thirteen. However, under these laws, parents or guardians may “abort” their child, as long as their child’s life doesn’t technically end.

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Do you think that other people should have control over your body? In Samira Hassan essay, “Opinion: The overturning of Roe v. Wade is one of the biggest injustices against women. Hassan appropriately appeals to women that are affected by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and she supported her message with various information, and personal emotions all while creating a caring tone in her writing to sympathies to the audience. First and foremost, Hassan knows that she has to use etho’s masterfully to appeal to the audience. As a woman, Hassan shows empathy towards the reader's emotions, when Hassan stated that “I live in a country where our highest court stripped every woman in it of their constitutional right to an abortion”(Hassan, 2022).

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Rather than stating the argument, Willis poses it as a question, “Are the fetuses the moral equivalent of born human beings?” (Abortion Debate 76), thus showing how modern feminists can only support one side of the argument in their chosen stance, and cause limitations by doing so. In doing so, Willis shows how to some “extent… we objectify our enemy and define the terms of our struggle as might makes right, the struggle misses its point” (Ministries of Fear 210), which implies that feminists have completely missed the point of the argument by getting caught up in an answer. Rather than looking for a compromise or gray area, they exert their stance as the only solution that woman can have. Willis also shows how feminists fundamentally “see the primary goal of feminism as freeing omen from the imposition of so called ‘male values’, and creating an alternative culture based on ‘female values’”

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The language and concepts used, as well as the arguments made by the authors, contribute to the ongoing conversation and discourse surrounding reproductive rights. They provide a medical and health-centered perspective on the issue, highlighting the importance of access to safe and legal abortion in protecting maternal health and reproductive rights (Bunch 487). Notably, the poem’s focus on the fetus's physical and emotional experiences highlights the unborn's humanity and agency. At the same time, the sources provide a broader context for understanding the political and social issues at play in the fight for reproductive rights (Kim). This demonstrates the importance of nuanced language in discussions of reproductive rights and how language can shape our understanding of these issues.

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Before Roe v. wade the number of deaths from illegal abortions was around 5000 and in the 50s and 60s the number of illegal abortions ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. These illegal abortions pose major health risks to the life of the woman including damage to the bladder, intestines as well as rupturing of the uterus. The choice to become a mother must be given to the woman most importantly because it’s her body, her health, and she will be taking on a great responsibility. A woman’s choice to choose abortion should not be restricted by anyone; there are multiple reasons why abortion will be the more sensible decision for the female.

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Objectively speaking, women and men face starkly different realities. Women have for a long time been seen as subordinate to men in many respects, and women’s supposed lesser status has subjected them to an unwarranted slew of problems and dilemmas, all rooted in this arbitrarily established inequality. Debra Satz and Elizabeth Anderson write on two sets of moral dilemmas—prostitution and paid surrogate motherhood, respectively—that are specific to womanhood. Satz and Anderson both believe that the practices they describe are wrong, with Anderson coming out forthright in favor of the abolition of paid surrogate motherhood and with Satz warily mentioning that she supports decriminalization. I disagree with Anderson on the account that her criticism of paid surrogate motherhood is paternalistic in a way that Satz’s argument about prostitution is not.

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Some believe pregnancy is a violation of a woman’s autonomy. Both the mother and father have equal rights over their child and equal concerns as the child’s future parents. By aborting the fetus, having an abortion invades the interest of both the mother and the father. Therefore, interfering with the woman’s autonomy also interferes with the men’s.

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The social practice of restricting abortion is closely associated with traditional approach of women’s roles and efforts to control their sexuality. (Hendricks, 2009, p.335) Although concern for fetal life is the primary argument conveyed against abortion that concern commonly works in stride with regulations for women’s roles. Many abortion bans provide exceptions for cases of rape. The law defines rape from the perpetrator’s perspective, it is more clear-cut to say that the right to abortion depends on the responsibility of the man, rather than the woman.

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Joanna Schoen evaluates this element of choice and highlights how although these new forms of contraceptives were now available, they were not so easily accessible if you weren’t of a certain criteria. In her book ‘Choice and Coercion’, Schoen discusses a poor African American woman who despite begging for birth control and diaphragms was denied this freedom by health professionals and her husband. They denied her of her own reproductive rights even though these means of contraception was legally available. Once again in society, women

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