Killing The Black Body: An Analysis

The abortion question raises a number of issues that form the core of the abortion debate. Opponents and supporters of abortions have been battling over this particular problem for decades and still cannot come to an agreement. Being one of the most common and most controversial medical procedures, abortion tends to affect people on psychological and sociological levels. But while the discussion of the morality of abortion is an ongoing debate, the social issues surrounding abortion in most cases stay unnoticed. The social aspect of the issue is centered on the abortion policy. The main question of the abortion policy is whether the law should permit abortions and, if so under what circumstances. The other is whether the law should put the life of an unborn child first and legally protect it. The peculiarity of the abortion policy is that its measures are highly dependent on different public opinions.

Before women had rights to decide whether they could keep their baby, some states didn’t allow abortion, therefore requiring women to give birth to their child. In today’s current issues, abortion is still a controversial subject with millions of people supporting it or not supporting it. Every woman has the right to make changes to her own physical body, and those rights should not be taken away, according to the constitution. In the very famous case in 1973, “Roe v. Wade”, the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion throughout the first trimester of pregnancy. In the article, “Roe’s Pro-Life Legacy”, it is explained how after this movement, the right to abortion, lives have changed and led to lower abortion rates (Sheilds 2013.)

Women having been fighting for equal rights for many years. Because of our genitalia, we will be paid less, we will be judged more, and we will have to fight to protect our basic human rights. Most women are born with the amazing ability to carry life; this is a blessing and a curse. Because of this ability, some people believe that a woman’s body is not completely her own, but that the government has rights to that body as well. We have been fighting to control our own bodies for many years. All women must understand that fighting for our reproductive rights is not just a simple pro-life or pro-choice battle, but a complex fight to teach proper sex education, maintain women’s health facilities, and protect our essential human rights.

Mary Anne Warren (p.195-196) points out the exceptional circumstances of pregnancy; where one human is entirely biologically reliant on another and where it is impossible for complete personhood rights to not be in conflict between the foetus and the mother. Consider the following case. A mother and an expecting mother both express an intent to kill their child or unborn child respectively. Services are available to take the postnatal children from their mother without affecting her body. Yet to protect the foetus, one would have to imprison the mother until birth, or worse, force a caesarean on her. Warren (193) points out that forced caesareans are not merely a hypothetical

The majority of the pregnancies are not planned or not wanted; these young teens are usually between 18 and 19 years old (Mann, Cardona & Gomez,2015). As the family is the primary source of support and identity, family dynamics affect the choices made available to Latina teenagers. Culturally, women are encouraged to remain chaste until marriage. Motherhood is the primary identity in the Chicano women's life and Latina girls are expected to uphold these traditions. Many Latina girls find themselves in a sticky situation where their religion holds them to a pro-life decision regardless of the consequences to them or the baby. A Latina teen does not have open access to contraception or abortion (Mann, Cardona and Gomez, 2015). The Catholic church has already placed restrictions on abortion availability. The right to an abortion is a government decision and church and state should remain separate. This rise in unprepared pregnancy will eventually trickle down to government assistance programs like welfare and even programs like SafeHaven. SafeHaven is a place mothers can drop off infants with no questions asked. These places are in many states and are often at hospitals and fire stations. Schools also will discern an increase along with foster care and domestic adoptions. Not all of these areas are negative, but bringing a life into the world that is not wanted is not an

In her essay “Abortion, Intimacy, and the Duty to Gestate,” Margaret Olivia Little examines whether it should be permissible for the state to force the intimacy of gestation on a woman against her consent. Little concludes that “mandating gestation against a woman’s consent is itself a harm - a liberty harm” (p. 303). She reaches this conclusion after examining the deficiencies in the current methods used to examine and evaluate the issues of abortion. Their focus on the definition of a “person” and the point in time when the fetus becomes a distinct person entitled to the benefits and protections of the law fails to capture “the subtleties and ambivalences that suffuse the issue” (p. 295). Public debate on the right to life and the right

This tiered system sets up privileges that are difficult, if not impossible, to break out of. “Even before the cuts less than 20% of women in need… were served… out of the 1.7 million women in need” (Stevenson, 2014). A legislation that was created to benefit and, as the advocates for the bill have said before, create the ideal world without abortion has succeed in undermining the health and safety of the individuals within the state. The benefits of this bill help little to no one as people are forced to conform based around moral ideals.

68-92). Andaya (2014) uses quotes from participants to explain the Cuban narrative of abortion (pp. 80-82). There seems to be a double narrative that is taking place during discussions surrounding abortion. One narrative designates women who keep unintended pregnancies as “undisciplined” (Pg. 82). Women are shamed for conceiving often, especially if they are of a lower class. On the other hand, there is a counter narrative which shames women who have had multiple abortions (Pg. 68). This shaming is disguised a concern for women’s health and fertility, where Andaya (2014) writes “The state holds that abortion is a public health problem…in 2004, 11 of the 54 maternal mortalities were abortion related (Acosta 2006)” in which Cuba has “linked” abortion to maternal mortality. Furthermore, Andaya (2014) also writes “…in 2009, more than half of the cases of female infertility among young women were thought

Roberts attempts to convince readers that reproduction is an important topic, especially for black individuals. She addresses it important because certain policies that are set to keep black women from having children but also because these same policies persuade people in believing that racial inequality is perpetuated by Black people themselves. Roberts wants readers to think about reproduction in a new way and realize that these policies not only affect Black Americans but also the very meaning of reproductive freedom.

This utilizes two similar court cases, Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), in order to provide support for the second premise. In these cases, the Supreme Court approved the Federal Abortion Ban, which “outlaws certain second-trimester abortions and has no exceptions for cases when a woman’s health is in danger” (Abortion, p. 2). NARAL (2013) explains that these cases reason that “other procedures are available to women who would have undergone the banned procedure” (Abortion, p. 2), which can imply that the women are basically on their own to find a safe alternative to a traditional abortion if they may need one. To conclude this premise, NARAL (2013) states that because of the cases, women can be forced to continue carrying the child, even if it will be at the expense of either the mother or child’s health or life (Abortion, p. 2). The two cases used in this premise also provide sufficient evidence for this section of the

These strategies continue to undermine the choices that the Women of Color have in deciding whether or not they want to have children because they do not want to be stigmatized with poverty. Obviously, the adverse and psychological effects of the various interlocking forms of oppressions that limits Women of Color’s reproductive rights makes it very important to understand them.

While Latin America’s lack of reproductive rights would seem to be common knowledge, many are unaware of how exactly women in Latin American countries are affected. In a fairly large number of countries, abortion is illegal. In regards to this, “in 2008, 12 percent of maternal deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean were due to unsafe abortions.” (Mane, 2013) 95% of the abortions

Never in the history of the United States, with the exception of the Slave Trade, has a public policy carved such an unmistakable social divide. Never before has a public policy spurned so many questions about social and political standards of American culture. To understand the abortion controversy and ultimately the Supreme Court’s involvement and decision in Roe v. Wade, the roots of abortion must be examined.

To deny a woman the right to terminate her pregnancy is akin to robbing her of any ability to make decisions about her body, her self, and her future. The woman is effectively forced, against her will, to assume an identity and a future that she normally would have avoided. This type of coersion can permanently damage a persons emotional and psychological health. The one thing that makes each of us an individual is our decision making freedom and powers regarding our own future and actions. But when we are robbed of our ability to make our own decisions about our future, our self, and our identity, then we are robbed of our most essential and valuable treasure…our self. If a woman wishes to obtain an early term abortion…to terminate a pregnancy…then she must be allowed to choose this option. If she id denied an abortion, then both her and the future child will suffer tremendously. Please stop viewing abortion as something that you should have sole control over. A person’s body is their own, not yours. It is threatening and invasive when others attempt to direct the lives of their peers. Rather supporting the tyrannical idea of forced childbirth, perhaps you ought to consider the more moderate concept that all people should be able to choose the future of their bodies and reproductive functions. I advocate neither abortion nor

In regards to women’s sexual freedoms, laws prohibited women from receiving contraceptives. This was a major issue pertaining to low-income women who couldn’t afford to have a child or afford the process of abortion. Those who lived in poverty suffered the most because the more children they had, the more impoverished they become. Even working-class women were banned from receiving information on birth control; resulting in crude methods of abortion.