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The Role Of Abortion In Margaret Atwood's Hairball

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In the short story ‘Hairball’, Margaret Atwood portrays Kat as being an insecure individual living in an imaginary world, in which, she is to blame for the negative events that occur. Her feelings, emotions, and actions are driven through the insecurity she has of herself. One of the events that impacted Kat was her experience of abortion. The men who entered her life constantly left her which not only left her saddened and broken, but unsure of herself and what she did wrong. These events led Kat’s decision-making as she says “[I] learned to say that she didn’t want children anyways”, (35) when primarily, having children was her desire. Her sense of insecurity towards relationships with men drove her to abort. Another event that impacted
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The argument over a woman’s right to choose over the life of an unborn baby has been a prevalent issue in America for many years. As a birth control activist, Margaret Sanger is recognized for her devotion to the pro-choice side of the debate as she has worked to provide sex education and legalize birth control. As part of her pro-choice movement, Sanger delivered a speech at the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference in March of 1925. This speech is called “The Children’s Era,” in which she explains how she wants the twentieth century to become the “century of the child.” Margaret Sanger uses pathos throughout her speech as she brings up many of the negative possibilities that unplanned parenthood can bring for both children and parents.

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In the story Hairball by Margaret Atwood, Kat is living in a fictitious world as she lives life with a fake persona, but in reality she is lost and does not know who she truly is. Firstly, Kat has gone through many personality changes throughout her life; from her childhood as the pure Katherine, to high school Kathy, and blunt university Kath, to finally her present chic image Kat. Her character change suggests that she was constantly looking for who she truly was. However she still does not find her true self as at the end of the story she says, “... [I am] temporarily without a name.

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