Abortion: Women Have Been Fighting For Their Rights For Years

Abortion is one of the most controversial topics. Some people support the mother’s free will to choose to have an abortion, others do not. Abortion means ending a pregnancy. In the past years, most people looked at abortion as killing a child or some sort of child abuse. But today’s society looks at abortion as presenting the mother with more opportunities to have a better future and preventing a child to ruin a mother’s life. Abortion has been a controversial topic since ancient history and will continue to be in the future.

According to the article Rhetoric vs. Reality: How Abortion Bans Hurt Women by Ravi, Anusha, and Jamila Taylor, some people do not support abortion because of the misjudgment toward women’s choices. The article mentions that by avoiding misjudgments about abortion, women can be prevented with access to make decisions that will be the best for them. This affects women all around the world and causes problems between a patient and health care provider. According to Abortion Is Not Just a Women's Issue 71 Republic by McFarland, Ellie, there is no definitive answer to whether abortion is wright or wrong, and it has been a highly controversial topic for years.

On the local level, it's being addressed by the media and protestors. According to the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice by State and Local Health Department Activities, there are also local agencies that help women make the right decisions when it comes to abortion. On the national level, there are many organizations supporting abortion. According to Pro-Choice Organizations, pro-choice organizations like Center for Reproductive Rights, Feminist Majority Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and many more help women get access to safe and healthy abortions.

In terms of resources, there is a lack of abortion providers and proper education. According to Educational Resources by the National Abortion Federation, there is a national shortage of abortion providers, the lack of abortion education in schools or education centers, and there are also new laws that do not support providers of these services. According to Tessa Holtzman’s article, The Economic Effects of Abortion Access: A Review of the Evidence, having access to legal abortion increased women’s participation in the workforce and it had more effects for black women. According to the book Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents by DuBois, Ellen Carol, and Lynn Dumenil, women were expected to get married, have kids, and just be submissive. Some feminists like Susan B Anthony and Alice Paul were against abortion, other feminists support abortion and a woman’s right to choose.

Clearly, there is some difference in the way women view abortion then and now. The book Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents also mentions Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. It helped women make choices in the issue of reproduction. The article What Margaret Sanger Really Said About Eugenics and Race, says that in 1914, Margaret Sanger wrote, “Enforced motherhood is the most complete denial of a woman’s right to life and liberty.”. This shows that in Margaret’s perspective, not having the right to choose whether or not to have children is a women’s rights issue and can also be considered a feminist issue. The articles explained that Margaret Sanger focused on the minority, people who did not have enough money or access to health care. This was because these women suffered the most when it comes to the effects of unplanned pregnancy.

According to Rhetoric vs. Reality: How Abortion Bans Hurt Women, abortion bans are dangerous and affect women’s rights. Women have been fighting for their rights for years and being denied of having the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion definitely affects their rights. The book Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents, shows that women have been discriminated against, denied their rights to vote, rights to freedom, rights to free speech, and many more. And from what happened in history, we can understand that being denied of such issues including abortion does not mean women will stop fighting for what they think is right. Because according to the book Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents, when women were denied the right to vote, they did not stop trying. They were in fact starting to go against “Cult of True Womanhood” which according to the book is the idea that a “true” woman is submissive and has to agree with everything her husband says. Even though it took almost a century, they kept fighting and protesting until they gained the right to vote.

Reasons women choose to have abortions are for example, a woman might have been in a nonconsensual relationship and ended up getting pregnant. She might be too young to have children, or it might even go against her culture or religion. This is a feminist issue because it concerns women and according to the article Ethics - Abortion: Women's Rights by BBC most of the time, feminists are seen as being against abortion bans, but in fact, feminists can actually support either side the issue.

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Seeing it from the context of women’s rights, it is more of a political issue than it is a moral issue. Politically, it’s a question of whether or not women should be prevented from having abortions if they want them. This can be related to women’s rights.

According to Women Should Have the Right to Choose Abortion and Pregnancy, Says Supreme Court Judge by Stuti Bhattacharya, women should have the right to choose freely whether or not to abort their own pregnancy.

Even though the fetus might not be fully formed, its termination could be considered murder. And people that are pro-life say that there are alternatives, such as giving the child up for adoption after birth. Pro-choice refers to a group of people who say that a woman can choose to end her pregnancy. But it is a decision ending a harmless human being's life. According to The Bad Old Days: Abortion in America Before Roe v. Wade. By David A. Grimes, before the Roe vs. Wade case passed and abortion became legal, some women used to do this procedure in an unsafe manner. Women still do this in states that abortion has been banned and even until this day, people are divided on this topic.

In the article Madame Restell: The Abortionist of Fifth Avenue by Karen Abbott, during the 1800s, the doctors' financial motivations were addressed and they went on to perform an estimated 2 million abortions after making it illegal, prosecuting and trying to rid the country of midwives charging twenty dollars for poor women and a hundred dollars for the rich. The article Madame Restell: The Abortionist of Fifth Avenue said “If they couldn’t seek treatment in person, Restell responded by mail, sending preventative Powder at five dollars per package or Female Monthly Pills, one dollar apiece.”

If a woman wants to further her education, work, or anything related to that, it will depend on her decision on whether or not she will have children. According to Men Cause 100% of Unwanted Pregnancies by Gabrielle Blair, not letting women choose to have an abortion makes them responsible for unwanted pregnancies but men will not have as much responsibility.

Most people usually think that feminists support women's right to choose abortion, but according to the article Early Feminist Leaders Were Pro-Life on Abortion, Calling Abortion “Child Murder.” by LifeNews.com, most feminists often disagree. In the present time, instead of supporting equal rights for women and the right to vote, people are defending the right to abort a child. But according to the article, early feminists did not support that. For example, the article, mentions that Susan B Anthony said: “Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them.” Which shows that she did not support abortion.

Women’s involvement in the workforce had been and will continue to be affected by childbearing. According to the book Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents, women have worked very hard to be able to gain their rights to vote and to get the same opportunities as men. So pro-choice activists would say that denying women of having an option on whether or not to have a child is a women’s rights issue. According to What Margaret Sanger Really Said About Eugenics and Race, the idea of banning abortion means decreasing the female labor force, which is similar to early policies.

In conclusion, there is no definitive answer to whether abortion is wright or wrong and it all depends on perspective. But because abortion reduced the number of children born without intention and improved women’s lives in the past, it will also keep improving the lives of women in the future if we can just give them the option to choose to live their own lives.