WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:46:52 -0500

my ipod lol

The Pro-Choice Doctrine

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:47:00 -0500

I don’t believe any woman should have an abortion. That being said it’s not my choice to make. I was in my philosophy class (a class dominated by women) and the teacher asked if the man should have a say in whether or not a woman gets an abortion. The girls overwhelmingly said no, but only under the assumption that the man her pressure her to get the abortion. Personally, I would want I say because I would never want my wife or girlfriend to get an abortion. But no law should require male consent. I trust our women and they do not need the permission of a man.

Every time a woman gets abortion it’s a sad thing. However, this option should remain open to all women. There should be some regulation. Informed consent law should stand. But I trust women to make choices about their bodies. Things like making a woman listen to a fetus’ heartbeat or view an ultrasound only serve to guilt trip a woman out of the procedure. Trans-vaginal ultrasounds are overly invasive. These regulations are aimed at reducing the number of abortions, but they’re doing so too late. If we are going to be serious about reducing the number of abortions, we need to start before the woman gets pregnant. The best way to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies is to give every woman full comprehensive sex education. Teach them how to use contraception, teach them how to use birth control, and make birth control accessible to all women, not just those who can afford it. It has been proven that when we give students sexual education, they wait longer to have sex and make smarter choices when they have it. Women who are given sex education have a lower rate of unintended pregnancies. Contraception, such as birth control and condoms, coupled with the right education can dramatically reduce the number of abortions.

However, not all unintended pregnancies can be prevented and therefore abortion must remain a choice. Women who have been raped or whose lives are threatened by the pregnancy should always have the Option to end their pregnancy. And in the interest of protecting women’s privacy, there should not be any requirement to in anyway prove that she was raped. She should be able to anonymously receive the care she needs. It has been shown through studies that a woman who has been raped is more likely to get raped again. Multiple rapes can lead to multiple pregnancies. And for this reason, there should be no cap on the number of abortions a woman can receive. And the amount of women receiving multiple abortions is extremely small, and not an issue we need to worry about.

Some would argue that instead of getting an abortion, a woman can choose adoption. This is certainly a good alternative, but it’s not the best choice for every woman. The physical act of having a child can put a woman out of work or school for extended periods of time. No woman should have to choose between her education and a child. And many poor women, whose income is based on a per hour basis, cannot miss work for extended periods of time without financial repercussions. Women who are in school should not be forced to suspend her education to have a child. No man will ever have to face this issue, so no man should restrict a woman’s access to abortion.

In order to reduce the need for abortions, everyone should support greater access to birth control for women. Some (the Catholic Church especially) think that the use of birth control is immoral and that employers and insurance companies should not have to pay for it. Since co-pays are expensive, it is difficult for poor women and full-time students to have access to birth control. These poor women who cannot afford the monthly costs of birth control obviously won’t be able to afford to care for a child, or take the necessary time off of work to carry out her pregnancy. If we allow employers to deny coverage for contraception, we would be putting a restriction on women’s access to employment. Contraception has many purposes not related to preventing pregnancy. Birth control treats severe acne, ovarian cysts and other women’s health issues. Studies have shown that after taking birth control for 3 years, a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer is cut in half. Access to contraception is essential to women’s health.

Catholics have said that since using contraception goes against their religious doctrine, they should be exempt. Churches are exempt, but catholic schools and hospitals are not. Many women are employed by these institutions, and not all of these women are catholic. A study also found that even catholic women use birth control. Of catholic women that have a reason to use birth control, 98% of them did, even though it goes against church doctrine. There is a very simple reason for this; women are not allowed in on the conversation about the official stances of the church. The leader of the Catholic Church is the pope. Below the pope are the cardinals. Then bishops, then deacons, then priests. Out of all the decision makers in the Catholic Church, none of them are women. And throughout all of history, none of them have ever been women (also according to church doctrine). This is a large scale of example of men making decisions FOR women about women’s health. We cannot allow catholic institutions to deny women their basic health needs based on a religious exemption. If we allow this, a woman who is seeking employment as a teacher, doctor, nurse, cafeteria worker, janitor, etc, would first have to eliminate all catholic institutions from her options of employment. This would limit a woman’s employment opportunities in a way men are not limited, essentially making it harder for a woman to find employment. This is simply not fair to our nation’s women.

Lastly, I want to argue the dangers of making abortions illegal. First, let’s consider a ban on abortion that is somewhat moderate, and allows abortions in cases of rape and when the mother’s health is at risk. This would at least allow some access to abortion. Most likely, though, it would require raped women to somehow prove she was raped. This proof can be invasive into a woman’s privacy. I cannot imagine what it must be like, but I’m sure a woman who was raped would not want to advertise it to everyone she contacts. A woman’s privacy must be protected, and therefore a law banning abortions except in cases of rape would be invasive into women’s private lives. Also, the definition of rape can be changed to exclude women who were date-raped. There are laws that have been attempted and passed (by mostly male legislatures) that change the definition of rape to exclude women who were date raped and other forms of rape that aren’t especially violent. Women who are victims of “non-violent” types of rape would be forced to have their attacker’s baby because of a man’s definition of what rape is.

Finally for those women who get pregnant after consensual sex. Many of these women feel trapped by pregnancy. The man can always just walk out, because he has no real tie to the child. If we take away the choice to have an abortion, these women will be trapped. When abortion is illegal, many women turn to suicide. Others go for the coat-hanger solution. If abortion is made illegal, women seeking an abortion will turn to unsafe, unregulated abortions that are dangerous to her health and can cause death. These abortions are not performed by doctors and are not preformed in hospitals or clinics. The only way we can protect our women from these dangerous abortions is to keep the practice legal and regulated in a way that does not invade her privacy, does not pass judgment on her, and does not attempt to make her feel guilty after it is too late.

I trust our women to make smart choices, and I believe if we expand sex education that emphasizes the use of contraception and birth control, and expand access to birth control, we can significantly reduce the rate of abortions. We should also lower regulations on abortion that have no medical purpose, as they only serve to pass judgment on the woman and make her feel guilty. We should focus on reducing the abortion rate BEFORE pregnancy, not after the woman enters a clinic. If we do this properly, we can practically eliminate the need for abortions except in cases of rape or when the mother’s health is at risk WITHOUT needing to pass a law. This should be our goal; not harassing a woman who is making the most difficult choice she may ever have to make, but reducing the number of women who have to face this choice.

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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

The Pro-Choice Doctrine