In response to Chloe Yates' article "The Bright Side of Suffering" in which she argues that the laws passed in Texas, which require women to have a sonogram 24 hours before they have an abortion, are losing their right to privacy :
While your rights may be "challenged" by these laws, the way I see it is that
such legislation is trying to provide the most basic right to the "fetus"- the
right to be seen for what it actually is, a baby. It is words like "fetus" that
de-humaize and make lesser of such a weighty issue.
What Governor Perry,
and others in favor of this alw are trying to do is get all women, teen or
adult, who are considering having an abortion to realize what exactly they are
doing by having the unborn baby "terminated." I don't think that there is
anything wrong with wanting mothers to be fully informed before making that
decision.
Which do you think would be worse: having a baby as a teen mom,
and either keeping it or giving it up for adoption, OR making a spur of the
moment decision to have an abortion and possibly going on to regret it later in
life? I am completely aware that there are women who think long and hard about
such a decision and still choose to have abortions, and I get that having a
sonogram when one has already made their mind up to do so would be extremely
difficult and uncomfortable, but what on earth is wrong with thinking
twice?
I know a women who is now in her late thirties and has two kids,
who got pregnant and ended up aborting her baby and I know for a fact that there
is no decision that she regrets more. If she had been required to have a
sonogram as this law requires, she may have decided to have the baby and either
keep it or give it up for adoption (an alternative that I believe you
overlooked), both of which would have saved her the immense pain and and
suffering that her choice has brought upon her.
1 comment:
I personally disagree with the Texas law requiring women to have a sonogram 24 hours prior to having an abortion is reasonable, and believe that it is not acceptable. Women should not be manipulated in such a way when faced with an already terribly difficult decision. You argue that the law provides the fetus the right to be seen for what it really is, a baby, that words like "fetus" serve to dehumanize it, and that the law is trying to get women to realize what they are really doing when having an abortion.
First of all, this is not at all scientifically accurate, as a fetus is not a baby, but an entirely separate stage in human development, and the term is not intended to be dehumanizing, but an accurate description. We might as well start calling each individual sperm or egg a baby now, since it's just as correct. To state that a mandatory sonogram is necessary for a woman to "realize exactly what they are doing" is almost insulting to the entire gender. It seems to imply that women have absolutely no clue how abortions work, like they think some fairy comes and magically makes them un-pregnant. Of course women are aware that terminating their pregnancy means that they are killing the unborn fetus - that's why it's such a difficult decision.
You go on to ask, "which do you think would be worse: having a baby as a teen mom, and either keeping it or giving it up for adoption, OR making a ... decision to have an abortion and possibly going on to regret it later in life?" The answer to this question seems entirely obvious - going through 9 months of pregnancy and the mood swings, depression, weight gain, and all the other terrible things that accompany it, only to be followed by a painful, not to mention expensive, childbirth to keep or give the baby for adoption is clearly much worse of an option. Keeping a child is often an irresponsible idea, as it is very unlikely that mothers who would be considering abortions are financially or emotionally capable of adequately taking care of a child. Adoption, while it may seem like the nobler course of action, is also very difficult. It’s costly, and on top of that quite unsuccessful – thousands of American children are currently being held under state care without being adopted. It’s not as simple as handing your baby to a new family once it’s born.
The choice to have an abortion is an incredibly difficult one, and the new law requiring sonograms while a woman is most emotionally vulnerable only makes the decision harder. The law is not intended to simply allow women to "think twice" about their decision, but to forcibly persuade them to change their mind. It is cruel and manipulative, and should be revoked as soon as possible.
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