Summary for 4/9

Judith Arcana states that abortion is a motherhood issue. Motherhood is often just associated with giving birth and raising children, but Arcana emphasizes that most decisions or events that happen to a woman—contraception, miscarriage, adoption, and abortion—are all part of motherhood. She places the emphasis on this, not to shame or frighten women who choose to have an abortion, but rather to highlight the idea that the mother is still responsible for the life of her child. She says that conception is when maternity begins. The decision to have an abortion is a choice that a mother has to make, much like where to send them to school or to have them baptized. She highlights her own experiences as working in a clinic, having a child, having a miscarriage, and having an abortion as part of the foundations for her opinions. She points to other groups of people who have had abortion as an option for their women. Their customs were that the mother made decisions on the behalf of her child, even if that meant having an abortion. In those societies and in modern ones, it is less important to argue over if it is murder or not but to have the women take responsibility for her decisions.

Eleanor Cooney integrates her story of having an abortion and the history of abortions, including the Partial Birth Abortion Ban of 2003. The ban outlawed abortions after 24weeks of pregnancy, except for when the fetus was already dead or as a last means to save the mother’s life. She describes stories of women who had abortions, but had vicious reactions to “incomplete” abortions done by unlicensed individuals.  The first laws against abortion appear not to be against abortion directly. They were more so against the drugs that women were taking. Abortion was still a private in-house matter until later in the 19^th Century. The Civil War was one instigator in the laws due to the massive amount of male casualties. She also writes about a doctor’s experience. He saw many women die gruesome deaths related to bad abortions, but he claimed that they ended in 1973 when  abortions became legalized. For her own personal experience, Cooney explains that found herself pregnant at 17. She waited a while before deciding to have an abortion that made her experience even more difficult. She went to several doctors who told her to bring money and that they could perform the procedure. When she went to their offices, they took her money, told her she was too far along, and tried to assault her. She eventually tells her mother about her pregnancy and her mother springs into action and gave her money to have the abortion in a much more reliable clinic. She explains that while her experience was difficult, she was much luckier than many other women who faced far worse things such as death.

Alison Crews grew up in a pro-life household. Her mother housed pregnant teenagers and would protest in front of abortion clinics. When she was about 12, she saw a young teen leave the clinic visibly shaking and upset. After seen the teen face the unruly crowd after such a private experience, she decided not to protest any more. She  became pregnant at the age of 15. She made several appointments at abortion clinics, but did not follow through with any of them. During her pregnancy, she was told many things in regards to what she should do. She felt as though she actually was not allowed to make any choices herself. It was as if becoming pregnant negated her right to think for herself. She believes that women should have the right to choose what they want to do, in more than just to have an abortion or to have the baby.