This week’s reading and documentaries gave us more insight about what abortion is, the multiple procedures and methods used to get them done, the multiple regulations it has, etc. It was also possible to observe the perspective of the people who choose to do an abortion and the multiple reason they have to do it. Besides seeing the perspective of women who get abortions, we were also able to see the perspective of some pro-life people.
When I found out about the leaked document, I was a concerned and worried. I thought that it was done just to put another obstacle on women’s path since doing that is completely unnecessary and doesn’t have any other purpose than mocking women and establishing more control towards them. To be honest, I don’t understand how abortion could not be a constitutional right since pregnancy it’s something very personal and it directly affects the women’s health, development, lifestyle, etc. Therefore, terminating a pregnancy should be a private decision where no one else interfers and it still should be protected by the 14th amendment. I wasn’t aware of the racism behind abortion regulation laws. It definetly makes a lot of sense that the rich white men wanted to continue to abuse people for their personal gain. It’s extremely sad that after thinking that we made a significant progress legalizing abortion, we could be going 50 years backwards putting in risk the health of thousands of women.
This week I learned about the terrible start of abortion regulations. It is sad to see that it wasn’t done even for religious reasons, they literally wanted to own black women’s sexuality and bodies, just so they can bring more people into the world to continue to serve them, it’s extremely dehumanizing. I also gained more understanding of Roe v Wade and how is it so important to women’s abortion rights. Regardless of the terrible situation we are in, it gives me a little bit of hope seeing an initiative like the one of Rebecca Gompert, which is benefiting women in the United States and other countries around the world. It’s amazing that she’s making abortion much more accessible and it’s being delivered in creative ways like with robots and drones. The content of this week reminded me of the multiple abortion methods and also reminded me of the importance of keeping abrtion legal.
I feel like sometimes we get very caught in our own world and forget to think about what other people could be going through, to be honest I feel like that was happening to me. Watching the “Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa” video and the “Abortion Divide” documentary, allowed me to get a grip of reality and think about what other people are going through, and why keeping abortion legal it’s necessary for women’s health. Getting an abortion it’s not an easy decision to make, and it’s important to be thoughtful before bringing a human into this far from perfect world,. People sometimes suffer when they decide to get an abortion since they could become kind of attached to the embryo and the idea of what it could become, but one not always has the resources to give them a live worth living. Having a child It’s also something so personal and lifechanging, it’s incredibly disrespectful that some random pro-life people are trying to influence your decision, it’s extremely insensitive. Getting an abortion it’s far from selfish because it’s not easy at all to live in this world, and even less when you belong to a minority and the system is built for your failure. I couldn’t agree more with the words of Bell Hooks “If feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression, and depriving females of reproductive rights is a form of sexist oppression, then one cannot be anti-choice and be feminist. A woman can insist she would never choose to have an abortion while affirming her support of the right of women to choose and still be an advocate of feminist politics”. Women should be able to have the option of getting a safe, free, and legal abortion because they are human beings who have the right to decide for their futures.
I agree with your feeling that abortion should be a private choice between a woman and her doctor. I was listening to “The Daily” podcast from this week documenting pro-choice advocates and abortion providers reactions to the leaked decision. A point they made is that pregnancy and childbirth are ten times more dangerous than any abortion procedure. Women will die as a result of this ruling. In striking down Roe V Wade, we are telling women that their lives are secondary to their pregnancy. They also made the point that it is a doctors oath to act in the best interest of the patient, and as such there are many instances when abortion is in such interest.
Hello Neil, thanks for sharing! I definitely agree with you about striking down Roe v. Wade it’s telling women that they don’t matter, only the babies they could provide. I think it’s really dehumanizing to put an actual human live in second place and not letting women choose about their own bodies. I was listening to a Twitter space today where Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, was discussing that book and Roe v. Wade. She said a lot of interesting things one of them being that if you are pro-life it means that you agree that the government should own women’s bodies, those weren’t her exact words, but that was the message. It’s so sad that women’s health it’s a matter of discussion
Having a child should be the woman’s decision, if you have a partner of course have the discussion your plans and your partner’s job is to support any decision you want to make.
I agree with your statement that women have the right to have a safe, and free abortions. I believe that women should be the only ones to make a decision about their own bodies.
Hi Catherine,
I relate to a lot of the sentiments in your post. It’s really terrible how abortion regulations and laws started out. I feel that looking at that history should tell us plenty about why it should remain people’s right.