"Stop Calling Abortion a Difficult Decision"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stop-calling-abortion-a-difficult-decision/2014/08/15/e61fa09a-17fd-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html

In her opinion piece, “Stop Calling Abortion a ‘Difficult Decision,’” in The Washington Post, Janet Harris argues that characterizing abortion as a difficult decision is an inaccurate and harmful to the cause. She first refers to instances when public figures have called abortion a “difficult decision,” then tellsthe story of her own decision to have an abortion, and lastly brings in data to prove her point. The author’s purpose is to urge the public to stop using this term. The author addresses an audience of mostly pro-choice advocates with an unwaveringly strong, convincing tone.

In her opinion piece, Harris writes: “When the pro-choice community frames abortion as a difficult decision, it implies that women need help deciding, which opens the door to paternalistic and demeaning “informed consent” laws.” I disagree. I don’t think this implies women need help deciding. I think you can still call an abortion a difficult decision while maintaining that it is an intensely personal decision that the woman herself has the right to make.

Harris brings up the fact that “a 2008 study found that 40 percent of unintended pregnancies, excluding miscarriages, ended in abortion” as evidence that women who abort unintended pregnancies don’t have a hard time making the decision to do so; but how can she know? The data doesn’t say anything about the process of making the decision. It simply shows how many unintended pregnancies resulted in abortion.

Selling a narrative where abortion is not a “difficult decision” would not be an accurate representation of all women. Sure, maybe the author herself didn’t give a second thought to having abortion, but it’s not right to say this is the case for everyone.

Additionally, if the author is so worried about how the pro-choice community frames the decision to have an abortion, her narrative of seeing abortion as a quick and easy solution to an unwanted pregnancy does so much more damage to the cause than calling it a “difficult decision.”

I think abortion should not be characterized by politicians and advocates as a difficult nor easy decision. Rather, it should just be viewed simply as a decision, because it’s different for every woman. I think people should speak to their own experiences, like Janet Harris and Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores (whom Harris quotes in the articles), did, instead of trying to characterize the decision process of all women who have abortions.

I am pro-choice because I believe the government should not have the right to tell a woman what to do with her body. However, I would be lying if I said the concept of abortion doesn't makes me uncomfortable. If I were, God forbid, ever faced with this decision, it would be an incredibly difficult choice. But what’s important is that it would be my choice. That should be the focus. I think all pro-choice advocates can agree with that.

Lincoln and the Potential Government Shutdown

In the past few months, Congress has been struggling to pass a budget for the upcoming year. Congress’s inability to lay out a budget caused a shutdown in 2013, and many people feel as though history might repeat itself this year. Passing the budget for 2016 has been particularly difficult because Republicans won’t agree to it unless it defunds Planned Parenthood. Congress had to decide on a budget before October 1st, which they did, successfully avoiding a government shutdown for now.  However, this budget only lasts until December 11th. Now the government will have to butt heads over the budget and face a potential government shutdown once again.

In his 1830 speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Lincoln talks about citizens who become fed up with an ineffective government. He specifically mentions people “seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better,” and losing faith in their government. This very much applies to our government today. Republicans and Democrats spend so much time arguing back and forth over the same issues, and very often it fails to result in any real change. So much division within Congress over the budget makes it incredibly difficult for the government to function. This leads to anger and frustration among citizens who witness so many political disagreements and very few decisions actually being made. The American people have already “become tired of, and disgusted with, a Government that offers them no protection; and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose.”  We as a nation can only take so much of the stalemate within the government before we have to take action ourselves, which, as Lincoln describes, may even involve violating the law.