3/3/2007, Deadline 7, Hw 4, wp #2
Thoughts Before the Decision
Michele Cook
Mesa Community College
English 102, Section 4628
Professor Shelley Rodrigo
Why do women between the ages of 14 and 24 consider having abortions? It seems like a simple response: because they don’t want a baby. But surely there is more to the thought process than they are not willing to have a baby. What goes through a young woman’s mind as she debates her options?
Here are some of the sources I have found pertinent to during my research process:
Harris, M. M. (2004). Abortion an eternal social and moral issue. Wylie, Texas:
Information Plus.
This book is part of a reference series that complies recent statistics on current topics. Abortion as usual falls under current topics. In this book there’s endless data on every fact of abortion you could possibly think of. It focuses on age ranges, which is important for my paper because I am only looking into a certain age group. This source is similar to the wikipedia article I found in that, there are no biases in raw data. It supplies info right from the source: the women.
Abortion Facts and Patient’s Stories Pages. (2003). Retrieved February 27, 2007, from
www.prochoice.org
By glancing at the website this article came from, it is obvious where their biases lie. This is a good source from a dissimilar angle of the topic than mine. It provides stories of several people affected by abortion. One was of a teenage girl who was too scared to tell her parents that she was pregnant. She had an illegal abortion, and ended up dying from complications. Her parents found out she died because of a dirty abortion, they were devastated.
On the Abortion Facts page, various statistics are given. Some are on the characteristics of women who have had abortions; age, race, home-life. It also gives myths that a lot of people believe are true of why women have abortions. It was interesting to read, because most of the reasons are honestly what many people think.
Boonstra, H.D., Gold, R.B., Richards, C.L., and Finer, L.B. Abortion in women’s lives.
(2006). Retrieved March 1, 2007, from www.guttmacher.org
The authors of this book all agree that abortion is going no where fast. Whether it is legal or not some women are always going to turn to abortions. The spotlight should be moved from laws to the women these laws are trying to make decisions for. This source provides charts and graphs of statistics. Unexpected pregnant women are the main focus in this paper and what their reasons are from that point.
Feldt, G. (2003). Behind every choice is a story. University of North Texas Press.
Gloria Feldt is president of the Planned Parenthood Organization and wrote this book to change the way people perceive abortion. The title says it all, there is a reason, a story, a cause for every decision, choice and action made. It’s no different with abortion, there are real women behind the procedure and real lives and real reasons.
Hernandez, B. (1997). Rape justifies abortion. Abortion. Retrieved February 10, 2007,
from Thomson Gale.
“Rape justifies abortion” is a true story of a woman who was raped and became pregnant. Rape was her reason for going through with an abortion. It was very hard to read and I think anyone who was pro-life would definitely reconsider some of their views. For mostly everyone it is often too easy to say this is wrong, don’t do this, but then never have experienced the choice themselves. It is the same for abortion, too many have opinions without honestly taking the time to get to know someone who is going through the consideration.
Finer, L.B., Frohwirth, L.F., Dauphinee, L.A., and Singh, A. (2005). Reasons u.s. women have abortions. Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health, 37(3). Retrieved March 1, 2007, from www.guttmacher.org
Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health is going to be one of the main sources I am going to use for my research paper. This article used information from a 2004 survey of over one thousand women and their experiences and reasons for having an abortion. The purpose of writing this article was to get into the women’s lives and see if there was a common factor. Their goal is to be able to decrease the rate of abortion by attacking the reasons for having one. It is biased in the fact that they are against abortion, but they are not being judgmental, they are out to help the women.
Terwillinger, M. (2001). Some reasons to decide against abortion. Pregnancy. Retrieved February 10, 2007, from Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center.
This is a really good source on counseling. The author did her best to present the questions a woman asks herself while considering an abortion. Such as, what will people think, will I be able to live with myself, etc. Terwillinger provides what she thinks is appropriate advice. She is partial to not having an abortion, so her all of her suggestions are leaning towards keeping the baby.
The statistics page. (2000). Retrieved February 28, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States#Statistics
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. It gives raw statistics. No biases, no opinions to water down the information. This webpage has the results of surveys asking women why they had their abortions. The outcome was broken down into the sub categories of their answers and are posted in this encyclopedia. I like that there is no personal view on this data. I can take it as it is and not have to shuffle through to figure out what is true and what is exaggerated to fit the author’s purpose.
Why do women have abortions? Position Papers, Paper 26. (2006). Retrieved February 28, 2007, from http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/positionpapers/26-Why-Do-Women- Have- Abortions.pdf
This paper basically lists several factors women take into consideration when thinking about having an abortion. Some of the influences on the decision are: money, relationships, whether or not she is prepared to have a baby, or if the baby will be born with a disorder, etc. It is not a very detailed report, but more brief and to the point. It is a good base start, a place to start my paper off from and then get more thorough. The writer of this article agrees that there is too much focus on the morality of abortion. Their point of view is neither really pro-choice nor pro-life, but more focused on the women and why they have abortions.
When reading all of these sources one after another, it proved to be very intriguing how certain biases led the authors to the same conclusions but for separate reasons. All agreed that there were stories behind having an abortion, but those not in favor of it seemed to think women choose abortion without thinking too much into it. The authors for abortion really took the time to survey, question and research what is going on. Combining all the information broadened my viewpoint. The interviews and real-life stories were heartbreaking and make the reader want to dig deeper. There is so much going on in a woman’s mind when deciding, it’s reassuring to know that it’s not a hastily made decision for most.