Faculty of Education And Humanities Department of Language & Cultural Studies

Critical Review Presentation Passage Title: A Matter of Choice.

GROUP MEMBERS.

INTRODUCTION. The Stabroek News editorial titled "A Matter of Choice" from May 2022 highlighted how abortion has been a bone of debate in the past and current history. At least that appears to be the concept. However, the concerns are far deeper and far more severe than they appear to be since they encompass women's rights, the loss of which would be catastrophic to the ongoing global battle. Further , the editorial's aim is to detail the impact of the abortion rights debate in the United States of America, including the people and the Supreme Court, on whether women have the right to determine what they do with their bodies and what applies to every aspect of life. Moreover, our impression of the editorial is both positive and negative since the writer is concerned about the incidence of abortion among women, particularly in the United States. The writer emphasized women's freedom to choose whether or not to have abortions, as well as people's attitudes and judgments regarding abortion and how they portray it negatively and biblically..

Article Summary. The United States of America seems determined to prove that its very name is a misnomer. This time around – and it's not new – the argument rages over abortion. At the very core, they involve women's rights; any diminishing of which would strike a blow to the ongoing struggle. Politico published an online exclusive in which it reported that, according to a draft opinion, the US Supreme Court was likely to vote to overturn abortion rights. According to the draft, which was leaked, the Supreme Court seeks to return the “issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives”. In effect, it will see the overturning of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in the case of Roe v Wade , which in 1973 established a woman’s right to privacy and safe and legal abortion within the first three months of pregnancy in all 50 states ..

Article Summary. The leaked draft was written in response to a case that began in Mississippi, where the only women’s health organization licensed to perform abortions in the state challenged a law passed by that state’s legislature in 2018, which prohibited all abortions, with few exceptions, after 15 weeks’ gestational age. Previously, abortions were legal in Mississippi up to the 20th week of pregnancy. If the Supreme Court’s final ruling mirrors what is stated in the draft, then it would set a precedent for other states – almost half of the country at this point-to bans medical termination of pregnancy. The truth remains unwaveringly the same, despite those who choose not to hear it; every human being has the right to determine what he or she does with his or her body and this applies to every facet of life. Never, in any secular state, will think even be given to enacting a law that forces men to have vasectomies. Yet, many men (and women) seem to have no problem with legislation that dictates what a woman must or must not do with her own body ..

Article Summary. What is it about abortion that makes it so abhorrent to some? It possibly has something to do with the fact that women have been cast as mere child bearers. Women are still saddled with an inherent shame when they are unable to carry a baby to full term. Anti-abortionists would have us believe that every conception, even those that emerge from execrable circumstances, should proceed per the course. Others will expound on when life begins and the rights of the unborn child because the person carrying the fetus, who will have to birth it, and care for it including financially, has no rights. Abortion is a public health issue and any decision about whether or not a woman has one should remain within the parameters of a health care setting. This is one of the reasons why the World Health Organization included comprehensive abortion care in the list of essential health care services it published in 2020. Contrary to what anti-abortionists preach, making the medical termination of pregnancy illegal does not save children. women’s rights activists are concerned, and rightly so, that given an inch those currently seeking to effectively reverse Roe v Wade would take a mile. The resulting erosion in hard-fought women’s rights might not be contained to the US..

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8. The writer emphasizes the leaked draft, which was written in response to a case that began in Mississippi, where the state's only women's health organization licensed to perform abortions challenged a law passed by the state legislature in 2018 that prohibits all abortions, with few exceptions, after 15 weeks gestational age (par.3). To support this, the writer cites a historic Supreme Court decision in the case of Roe v Wade , which established a woman's right to privacy and a safe and legal abortion within the first three months of pregnancy in all 50 states on January 22, 1973(par. 2 ). The legal decision in which the United States Supreme Court ruled (7–2) that overly stringent state abortion regulations are unconstitutional. In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the Court determined that a series of Texas regulations criminalizing abortion in most cases violated a woman's constitutional right to privacy, which is considered to be inherent in the liberty guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause ("...nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law") (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022) ..

9. In addition, the writer pondered that the truth stays constant, regardless of who chooses not to hear it; every human being has the right to choose what he or she does with his or her body, and this applies to all aspects of life. The author muses, "Never, in any secular state, would attention be given to adopting a legislation that requires males to undergo vasectomies." Nevertheless, many individuals appear to have no problem with the law that prescribes what a woman may or may not do with her own body. Double standards occur when patriarchy exists (par.4). According to Freedom to Decide for Ourselves (2018), autonomy is the ability to make choices and decisions based on one's desires and preferences, with support where needed. Independence is defined as the ability to carry out daily tasks and participate in society, with or without support, according to one's will and preferences ( Sleap , 2018) . This simply argues that regardless of what regulations are in place or what society believes, everyone has the freedom to make their own decisions..

10. The writer highlighted that there is a lot of guilt-tripping in abortion arguments as if the women who have to decide whether or not to have a child are not already in a bad mindset due to the psychological and spiritual training with which they were nurtured (par.6 ). To illustrate this argument, in the nearly 50 years since Roe v Wade , the abortion controversy has pervaded American politics. Within this rising movement, abortion has also emerged as a key topic. Pre-quickening abortions — that is, abortions performed before a pregnant woman feels fetal movement – were reasonably prevalent and even publicized from the country's inception until the early 1800s. Women from many walks of life attempted to stop unwanted pregnancies before and throughout this period, both in the United States and around the world. Enslaved black women in the United States, for example, devised abortifacient medications and abortion methods to prevent pregnancies following rapes and coercive sexual relations with white male slave masters. For many feminist activists of the 1960s and 1970s, women's reproductive autonomy became inextricably linked to the wider platform of gender equality. Furthermore, by the beginning of the twentieth century, every state had declared abortion a felony, with some making limited exceptions for medical situations and cases of rape and incest (Lindsey, 2021) ..

What is an abortion? | Live Science. 11. The writer investigates the fact that abortion is a public health issue and that any choice regarding whether or not a woman should have one should be made within the confines of a health care environment. Not all abortions require surgical intervention, and health care practitioners equipped with accurate information about pregnancy duration can help women end undesired or risky pregnancies safely and quietly if that is their preference (para.7)..

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Methods of Abortion – Pregnancy Services. 13. The writer questioned, “What is it about abortion that makes it so abhorrent to some?”. The writer believed it had something to do with the fact that women have long been stereotyped as mere child bearers. So much so that when women are unable to carry a baby to full term, whether for medical reasons or by choice, they are still burdened with underlying guilt (para.5). Ella Alexander's (2022) article on Can We Stop Shaming Women into Having Children? highlights an article that was written by a male without addressing the women who would have to give birth. It's as if we're not even there, as if we're not a part of the process at all. "Women's bodies are everyone else's; save our own; like a breeding cow, we must reproduce for the greater good and the economy." The most heinous aspect of women being blamed and shamed for not reproducing is how it completely absolves the powers that be of any responsibility (Alexander, 2022) ..

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The May 2022 Stabroek News editorial titled " A Matter of Choice " is an excellent illustration of how decisions are made depending on societal perspectives. The editorial aids readers in critically analyzing the developments in the era regarding abortion and women's rights, as well as the challenges women would encounter from society over a choice they would make for their reasons. The writers offered both positive and negative evidence on the problem of abortion choice. Even though several of the writer's remarks were primarily influenced by society, the article nonetheless supported the abortion and women's rights arguments..

REFERENCES. 16. Alexander, E. (2022, January 14). We need to stop shaming women into having children . harpersbazaar.com. Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/a38759281/stop-shaming-women-into-having-children/ Encyclopædia Britannica. (2022, May 3). Roe v. Wade . britannica.com. Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Roe-v-Wade Foster, D. G. (2018, January 21). When women are denied an abortion, their children fare worse than peers . statnews.com. Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://www.statnews.com/2018/12/05/how-abortion-denial-affects-children-well-being/ Lindsey , T. B. (2021, December 14). A concise history of the US abortion debate . theconversation.com. Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/a-concise-history-of-the-us-abortion-debate-118157 Sleap , B. (2018). Freedom to decide for ourselves . social.un.org. Retrieved June 11, 2022, from https://social.un.org/ageing-working-group/documents/ninth/Joint_Discussion_paper.pdf World Health Organization. (2021, November 25). Abortion . who.int/news-room. Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion#:~:text=Comprehensive%20abortion%20care%20is%20included,medication%20or%20a%20surgical%20procedure ..