This article is a striking and powerful argument in favor of legal abortion. The author writes, “If deprived of safe, modern mechanisms for doing so, they will continue with the dangerous versions with benefits that, for women who turn to them, don’t outweigh their risks. Make no mistake about it.” Herein lies the danger of lawmakers making reproductive decisions for women, who have been using contraception and performing abortions, legal or not, for thousands of years. Women who want to prevent pregnancy or end an unwanted pregnancy will find a way to do so, no matter what. Taking any sort of moral argument out of the picture, legalizing abortion has been a fantastic achievement for public health because the number of unsafe abortions being performed has dropped dramatically.
The author mentions a report that tried to link abortion to mental health issues. The report, however, did not investigate whether or not abortion led to increases in mental health issues or if women with mental health issues are more likely to get abortions. Such an article is not only misleading, it is irresponsible. Although abortion is currently legal in all states (but restrictions differ among them), there is an ever-present threat of this right being taken away. A report like this one gives the wrong idea about the health consequences of abortion, and could undoubtedly have very powerful effects on how the subject of abortion is viewed by the public and lawmakers.
I agree completely with what the article “Women Know Something You Don’t”. The statement that you brought up “If deprived of safe, modern mechanisms for doing so, they will continue with the dangerous versions with benefits that, for women who turn to them, don’t outweigh their risks” makes complete sense to me. If woman are not given a safe place to have an abortion, and they want one, they will find a way to get one. I myself am pro abortion and think that people should have their own choice whether or not they want to have a child, and it should not be decided for you. One thing that I disagree with you on is that when you say taking moral argument out of the picture, legalizing abortion is a fantastic achievement, but I don’t think that you can actually take the morality out of the argument because of the fact this is such a morally strong controversy.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the fact that they should not link abortion and mental health issue. To build on your idea that it gives off the wrong impression, I think that linking mental health to any operation or thing that society sees as “wrong” is just a way for society to have an argument that opposes what they are fighting. People with mental health conditions are going to do many different things, but just because they do something with a mental disorder does not mean that they are correlated. People are constantly looking for reasons to link mental disorders to things they do not agree with.