Should there be laws in place protecting women's right to choose?
Abortion “is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity, It's a decision that she must make for herself." - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1993
Kate Cox
Kate Cox is a Texan. The Texas Supreme court denied her abortion. Kate's fetus had Trisomy 18, a fatal abnormality and it affected her life and ability to have more children. She wanted this child, but it would not survive. She could not die because she has two young children waiting for her at home. Not all abortions are to end a unwanted pregnancy, but to keep a family together.
K. M. Kelly
K. Monica Kelly wanted a second child. When she fell pregnant in early 2023, she was ecstatic. But later on in her pregnancy, she discovered her child had Trisomy 13. She had to drive to Florida, from her home in Tennessee, to have an abortion. Women are now traveling to other states to have necessary abortions. Kelly has since joined a lawsuit suing her state.
Brittany Watts
Brittany Watts resides in Ohio. In 2019, her state tried to pass Ohio House Bill 182 which stated that ectopic pregnancies should be reimplanted. Watts had an miscarriage at 21 weeks in September 2023. The fetus was unviable but Watts was convicted of Corpse Abuse and arrested. Something similar happened to Brittney Poolaw of Oklahoma in 2021. Poolaw was convicted of murder and sentenced to 4 years. Should States really decide if women can have abortions?
Summary of the problem
In simple way to say it, there are two stances that people take regarding abortion, pro-choice and pro-life. I think that pro-choicers (like myself) understand that the topic of abortion is not simple and is really up to the person themselves to make the decision. Pro-lifers, this will sound a bit biased, are kinda simple minded when it comes to this topic. They think that abortion is just a person terminating their pregnancy just because. But it is not this simple. Banning and limiting abortion (which is what pro-lifers want) has many unwanted consequences, such as hospitals shutting down, and abortion does not happen only because a person didn't want to have a baby. People might have abortions due to incest, risk of death, etc. Abortion is complicted and banning it will only make it more needlessly complicated, especially because this is a private decision for the pregnant person.
Sen Sanders on Kate Cox
This is a summery of what happened to Kate Cox. This is credible as this is more or less what happened and this is persuasive because Sanders is a liberal policy maker who is pro-choice and knows what we have to do to protect women's rights.
Abortion Data (post Dobbs)
Abortion bans will not lower abortion rates, it will only cause people to travel further to get the procedure, which can be lifesaving. This chart is unbiased, just showing data.
Kate Cox's Statement
This what Cox said herself on the abortion and her feelings of continuing the pregnancy. This is Cox's own opinions and thoughts and shows us how she really thinks, something the media does not show fully.
Main Topics
1.) The safety of abortion
2.) The dangers of unsafe abortion
3.) Ethics of abortion/abortion bans
4.) Story of Kate Cox
5.) Abortion restrictions and exceptions not being clear
Counter Argument
One counter argument that the other side tends to say is that abortion only happens when someone is irresponsible and that people should be held accountable. But here's the thing, not all birth control is 100% effective and abortion happens due to many reasons, including to prevent death. This argument is just unfounded and baseless.
Results of your survey
98% of Curie High School students who were surveyed agreed that Abortion should be legal .
Interview Summary
Interviewee: Nadia
Why her: Nadia used to be more conservative when she was younger. Her views have changed and I think this makes her a good person to interview based on this.
Q: What are your views on abortion?
A: It is a necessary right.
Q: Why do you think the Republicans want to limit abortion access?
A: To control women and to enforce their old ideology of society.
Q: How would abortion bans affect you or your family?
A: It would mainly affect me and I do not think it would be that good. I do not want to bring a child onto the earth if I can not afford it and especially if I'm forced.
Q: Has anything influenced your views?
A: Not really. I used to be pro-life but I was uneducated and ignorant.
Q: What are your family's views on abortion?
A: They are pro-choice especially since they want me to have choices and my brother just does not know anything.
Memorable Quote: I used to be pro-life until someone explained it to me.
Your personal opinion
I think that abortion should remain legal and that it is a private decision between a person and their medical providers. The state should have nothing to do with these private matters.
Abortion Access: The Good, The Ethics and Consequences of Restriction
Have you heard of abortions? Do you know what a abortion does? Do you know of the effects of not having one when you need one? Ever since Dobbs overturned Roe, many states have been limiting abortion with some banning it completely. Some of those states are banning it with no exception, even for rape and incest. Because of these bans people are now forced to go elsewhere to get an abortion, with some going multiple states over. Abortion is healthcare and it should be legal, not restricted or banned as there can be devastating consequences such as maternal/infant mortality. Besides mortality abortion access also impacts doctors and the question of should they follow the law and deny a person abortion or should they follow their conscience and their oath to do no harm?
Abortion was legalized by Roe v Wade in the 1970s but was overturned a few years ago by Dobbs v Jackson. Under Roe, abortion was protected and legal federally for 49 years, until Dobbs in 2022 which changed the law and stated that abortion “is not such a right” under the 14th amendment (Roe v Wade and Supreme Court Abortion Cases, 2022). The legality of abortion is now under states to decide, some have protected abortion in their laws and state constitution while others have banned it completely. With abortion bans going into effect, unsafe abortions will be going on the rise and so will mortality rates. “Around 45% of abortions [globally] are unsafe” (WHO, 2021) and it is a leading cause of maternal death amongst other complications. The good of abortion access will always outweigh the bad and abortions can only be safe if legal.
The good of abortion access outweighs the bad in many cases. Ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants somewhere besides the uterus, the fetus is not viable and the pregnant person’s life will be in danger. The only treatment “is abortion, which saves the life of the pregnant person” (Robertson, Smythe, 2022). Abortion will save lives in other ways, not just in medical emergencies. Abortion access will help combat unsafe abortions which are oftentimes done by untrained people in an unsafe situation. There are many consequences of unsafe abortion which include death and complications such as “incomplete abortion; hemorrhage; infection”(WHO, 2021) and damage to internal organs which can lead to death if not treated on time. And besides the talk of good vs bad, ethics is heavily involved with abortion as well.
The talk of abortion access is entwined with ethics and it is not just about if abortion is right or not. In the medical community, there are several rules of thumb and ethics that doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, etc have to follow, such as the Hippocrates Oath. Abortion barriers will and may already have violated them and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists states on their website; “Abortion bans and other restrictions violate long-established and widely accepted medical ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and respect for patient autonomy” (Abortion Access Fact Sheet, ACOG). Why should the few people making these decisions decide that they are more right than ethics set and modified by generations of providers past? And besides breaking these ethics, these restrictions will now force doctors to question themselves. Will they follow the law and stop abortion care; will they “weigh their best good-faith position under the law while caring for pregnant individuals” (Robertson, Smythe, 2022); or will they leave their state to practice elsewhere? More and more medical professionals have decided to leave their state to practice elsewhere which has caused “hospitals across the U.S. closing obstetrics programs and maternity wards” (Kekatos, 2023). Patients will now need to go elsewhere to seek treatment, including pregnant people who intend on keeping the fetus. The effect of abortion bans is in violation of long established ethics and results in less providers for those who need it and is this really acceptable? And this is without other things being factored in, think about the laws and restrictions that were set after Dobbs.
What many people don’t understand about abortion bans is that it is not so black and white as some may think. Some restrictions set in place after Dobbs do give certain exceptions but they are vague. The exceptions “are vague on how close to death a patient must be to get the procedure” (Weber, Stengle, 2023). How can patients know if they are applicable when these “exceptions” are not stated clearly? The vague wording of these “exceptions” makes the interpretation of it completely up to the person reading it just like the saying “spare the rod, spoil the child” where some say it's telling you to beat your child else they will become spoiled while others say to not beat your child and spoil them instead. And sometimes, it seems that these exceptions do not exist. Kate Cox rose to notoriety last year after her legal case against Texas. Cox is a mother of two young children and was expecting her third when she found out that the fetus was not viable. She had “four emergency room visits, elevated vital signs, risks of a uterine rupture” (Weber, Stengle, 2023) and it impacted her ability to have more children and yet she was still denied a abortion as Texas decided that she didn't meet the standards needed for one. Cox ended up getting an abortion out of state. What Cox’s case shows us is that the threshold to qualify for the procedure is high when there are “exceptions”. And as if these restrictions aren’t enough, the myths spread about abortions only make people like Cox suffer more.
There are many myths about abortions such as it causing breast cancer or abortions can be reversed but the one that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) really dislike is the claim that abortions are unsafe. I agree with ACOG and beg to differ from this claim. As stated before, only unsafe abortions are unsafe and come with dire complications. A safe abortion is one carried out under the guidance (such as a abortion pill) or directly (such as a abortion procedure) by a medical professional. Matter of fact, a “abortion is safer than many common medical procedures” (Abortion Access Fact Sheet, ACOG) such as wisdom teeth removal and plastic surgery. ACOG also stated that the complications from abortions are rare (about 2%) and most can be treated with antibiotics. The minor complications that may come with safe abortions are nothing when compared to those of the unsafe ones. And to put that into perspective, would you rather have a uterine perforation or maybe a hemorrhage when compared to a minor complication that simple antibiotics can solve? The claim of safe abortions being dangerous is completely unfounded. And only when abortion is legal, will it be completely safe.
Abortion is healthcare and it should be legal, not restricted or banned as there can be devastating consequences such as maternal/infant mortality and we as a society have to accept this. We need to find a way to overturn Dobbs and reinstate Roe or at least make sure abortion is protected in your state through many ways, such as contacting your lawmakers and telling them about your concerns or maybe attend a protest for abortion access. There is a lot to be done and it may take generations to fix the huge misjudgement in Dobbs v. Jackson but if we try and action is taken as more and more Gen Z take office, people like Kate Cox won’t have to worry about dying due to a non-viable fetus and leaving behind their young children.
Sources
“Abortion.” World Health Organization (WHO), 25 November 2021, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion. Accessed 8 March 2024.
“Abortion Access Fact Sheet.” ACOG, https://www.acog.org/advocacy/abortion-is-essential/come-prepared/abortion-access-fact-sheet. Accessed 8 March 2024.
“Combating Abortion Myths: The Tool Kit.” ACOG, https://www.acog.org/advocacy/abortion-is-essential/come-prepared/combating-abortion-myths-tool-kit. Accessed 8 March 2024.
Kekatos, Mary. “More hospitals across the US are closing maternity wards.” ABC News, 3 November 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/Health/hospitals-us-closing-maternity-wards/story?id=104603350. Accessed 8 March 2024.
Robertson, Rachael, and Kara Leigh Smythe. “Conditions That Make Abortion Medically Necessary.” Everyday Health, 28 September 2022, https://www.everydayhealth.com/abortion/scenarios-where-abortion-can-be-life-saving/. Accessed 8 March 2024.
“Roe v. Wade and Supreme Court Abortion Cases.” Brennan Center for Justice, 28 September 2022, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/roe-v-wade-and-supreme-court-abortion-cases?fbclid=. Accessed 8 March 2024.
WEBER, PAUL J., and JAMIE STENGLE. “Kate Cox sought an abortion in Texas. A court said no because she didn't show her life was in danger.” AP News, 12 December 2023, https://apnews.com/article/abortion-kate-cox-texas-exceptions-e85664b2ab76bcb689b1b91913d3e33e. Accessed 8 March 2024.
