Abortion According to Marx, Weber, Simmel, and Bourdieu Essay
2227 WordsDec 19, 20129 Pages
The issue of a woman’s right to her own body, within the last few decades, has become a progressively intriguing social dilemma in American society. More specifically the topic of abortion is not as taboo as it was thirty years ago although the debate has continued as to whether or not the decision should rest solely on the woman. Merriam Webster defines abortion as the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus as induced expulsion of the human fetus. This is a controversial subject that can be argued quite effectively for or against a woman’s right to choose. The three major sociological perspectives of conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and functionalism…show more content… In retrospect of his belief that society is controlled by this idea, the ladder still holds true in today’s American culture. In Marx’s mind, the reality of the abortion era is essentially a result of continuous change in terms of the normal state of society. Traditionally, this culture has been quite conservative in relation to family values but the legalization of abortion changes this drastically and mirrors the pessimistic views of society held by conflict theorists like Marx.
As a major conflict theorist, Marx might also believe status stratification to be a reason the woman is considering abortion and also the source of the actual pregnancy. Stratification of status can be directly related to “the monopolization of ideal and material goods or opportunities (Gesellschaft,PartVII.p.190),” and also in this case to the stratification of economic class. The specificity and lavishness of these goods and opportunities is quite a successful tool in excluding certain people from belonging to particular status groups. Marx would even use this belief of exclusiveness on smaller scale and imply that the reason a woman is pregnant is due to the lack of means within her status group to obtain proper birth control or quality sex education. The woman may be a victim of circumstance because the monopolized goods and opportunities were privileges to those who can afford them and were unattainable. According to Marx this would be an example of how the bourgeois use their status