Emily Staruch

ENC1101
November 13, 2014
Pro-lifers vs Pro-choicers: Get Over It!
Since the late 1800s abortion has been a long standing issue among American women.
During that time, women had the right to an abortion as long as they did not feel fetal movement.
Thats almost scary to believe. It became more of a social issue during the 1960s when a drug
that was made to treat measles caused fetal deformity, and women opted for more abortions. It
was then that the pro-choice movement exploded. Now more than ever in the 21st Century, is
abortion a heated topic to discuss. Women on both sides just dont seem to understand each
others point of view on the issue. Is it really an issue though? Whether someone is pro-choice
or pro-life is their own opinion. The social issue will forever be seen as unresolved. There
are plenty of misconceptions about abortion and womens rights that need to be addressed. So
listen up fellow Cosmo readers, were here to clear up the air.
It has been said that the profile of a woman who is pro-life is most likely to be a 40
year old married woman with three kids, is unemployed, and has a strong religious background.
That may be true for the 19th century typical woman, but is that an accurate assumption for a
pro-life woman today? Famous celebrity Jordan Sparks defies that profile. She is an advocate
for the right to life and she is a huge success. This is just one example of a pro-choice celebrity
however. Although she is not your average American woman, due to her fame and fortune, she
still believes that every life is precious and is valuable. If she is allowed to speak out against
abortion and show her stance on the controversial issue, why cant other American women? The
constant backlash from pro-choice women and men do not allow this to be made possible. Just
as pro-life women had a profile in the 19th century, well so did pro-choice women. They

were profiled as having low income, lived in poverty, single, and was a minority. Though some
may see this profile still to be true, just as some may see the pro-choice profile to be true, this
is not accurate information for women today. The typical pro-choice woman today is a
postgrad and has no religious affiliation. Of course there are some misconceptions on viewing
someone as being pro-choice by saying he/she is a Liberal and is radical about their beliefs in
womens rights, but there are also some misconceptions about stereotyping pro-life women by
viewing them as a Conservative with strong moral values and religious affiliation. Though you
may seem to think these stereotypes are 100% true, or for the most part true, it is not. That is the
first thing that American women need to put an end to.
So what happens when a pro-life woman decides to have an abortion? Should she be
chastised for going against her own beliefs? Or should she be left off the hook, because after all
its her own body and she can do what she wants with it. This is the underlying issue at hand.
Most women who are pro-life will argue that if they were found in a situation of an unwanted
pregnancy, that they would either A) keep the baby, or B) give it up for adoption. Though this is
more easily said than done, must women find themselves not following their own advice. Why is
it so hard for most women to stand their ground? Is it the fear of disappointing their family and
friends, or is it just an inconvient time to carry an unborn child to full term? It is hard for a
woman to have such strong beliefs and then when the time comes when that pregnancy stick
shows up positive, they panic and ultimately resort to something they said they would never do:
abortion. Its hard to distinguish now whether or not these women can call themselves pro-life
since they went against everything that term stands for. You hear so many stories on how a
Christian girl who has deep religious roots got knocked up and couldnt possibly live with telling
her parents. So she results in abortion, because after all she was never supposed to have sex in

the first place until she is married. Its now when American women enter the slippery slope of it
all. Most people believe either you are pro-choice, or pro-life or that there is no in between.
Its almost ironic that pro-lifers say that they believe that all life is equal, but in the case of a
rape its okay to proceed with the abortion because how could you possibly live with a child that
will remind you constantly of your assault? Are they still considered pro-life? This is how the
long discussed debate will never be resolved. There are too many loopholes around the topic of
discussion and women dont know when and how to end it.
If abortion is such a heated debate in modern day America, then why dont we just teach
young women from an early age about forms of contraception? Logically speaking, this would
be the most efficient way to handle the situation. If young women knew that using a condom or
birth control would significantly reduce an unwanted pregnancy, then the abortion rates would
go down. Yes, there is always a random chance that the condom will break, or that the pill fails,
but young women still need to be educated and know the risks involved when having sex.
However, some believe that schools are not to teach girls about contraception because then big
corporations such as Planned Parenthood would go out of business. This is not true. Planned
Parenthood and other large corporations provide education and information about safe sex and
how to live a healthy life, child free. Of course, it is not easy to support centers like this because
of the constant backlash and picketers that do not support it. There are two sides to the argument.
If a woman decides she wants to practice safe sex and not have an unwanted pregnancy, then that
should be her own choice. How could anyone or anything take that choice away from her?
Again, this is where we enter the slippery slope. If Conservatives who are pro-life do not
believe in any form of contraception because it is against Gods will, then that should be their
own opinion. If they choose to believe that this is true, then they should be allowed to believe

that and live by those values. They are making the choice that if they got pregnant, it is because
it was all in Gods plan. Its safe to assume that if they did not believe in contraception, then they
would abstain from sex, but then again who knows. It only takes that one drunken night with
someone to lose control of your body, and make that mistake. The other side of the argument is
that obviously a woman has certain rights to her body. If she wants to practice safe sex because
she enjoys the activity so much, then it should only be fair that she is given the opportunity to do
so. Its her life. Not the governments or anyone elses. Why cant we all just agree to disagree on
this longstanding heated debate? If we all just let each other be and carry on with their normal
lives, then America would be a better place as a whole. Politics has played such an important
role for womens rights. However, because politics have played such a huge role, abortion seems
to be the only social issue that anyone cares about anymore. The first thing anyone thinks about
when they are asked if you are a Liberal or Conservative is whether or not you are pro-choice
or pro-life. No one cares about your stance on the actual economy or environmental
degradation. People only seem to care about abortion. It has become such a social issue that
clogs up the media and most Americans arent aware of the other issues going on right before
their own two eyes. For example, does anyone really even know what is going on with ISIS and
the whole lets take over all of Israel, and produce another mass genocide, or the fact that more
troops have been sent over to Iraq to help stop them? The answer may be yes for some
Americans who take an interest in their country, but for the most of them the answer is no. This
is because peoples minds are wrapped around a prominent topic of discussion, which you
guessed it: abortion! Another ground breaking event that may possibly save our environment is
that President Barak Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping worked closely together and came
up with a deal that will effectively reduce carbon emissions. Considering China and the US are

the two leading greenhouse gas emitters in the entire world, the fact that they met up and are
trying to come up with a solution is pretty amazing. Americans should be worried about this,
because after all, when our environment is depleted once and for all, there is no turning back. We
need to be better educated and more importantly, we need to a lot more concerned with what the
government is actually doing for our country, than what women are doing to their own bodies.
So, with all that being said, what can we do as American women to resolve this social
issue? Well for starters, as stated earlier in the article, we can all just agree to disagree. There is
no sense in trying to sway someones opinion that they firmly believe in when they formed that
opinion for a reason. It is up to us as American women to care more about current events that are
happening in the world, than to care about what one individual decides to do to her body. It is up
to us to find a way to become more involved in other social issues such as hunger in America
and the world. You cant tell other people what to do, its just not fair. Every individual has the
right to their own opinion and you cant take that right away. After all, freedom of speech is
instituted in the Constitution. All in all, the only thing women can do to put an end to all the hate
towards each other and their life choices, is to keep quiet. You can rally outside abortion clinics
and try to sway pro-choice women into becoming believers of God, and you can rally outside
churches trying to chastise pro-life women for believing every women has the right to her own
body, but it wont make any difference. Women will believe what they want to believe and thats
that. To reiterate the point here, if we can all agree to disagree, then we can move on to solve
problems such as world hunger that can actually be fixed.
Word count: 1850

Citations

Saad, Lydia. "U.S. Still Split on Abortion: 47% Pro-Choice, 46% Pro-Life." U.S. Still Split on
Abortion: 47% Pro-Choice, 46% Pro-Life. Gallop Inc., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.gallup.com/poll/170249/split-abortion-pro-choice-pro-life.aspx>
Hopely, Eddie, Alexandra Carr, Susanna Chon, Rafael Harrari, and Juwita Chavez. "The
Abortion Debate." The On-going Conflict over Abortion in America Has Been a Major Social
Problem That First Emerged as an Issue in Our Nation over Two Centuries Ago. N.p., n.d. Web.
12 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/social.issues/papers/AbortGrB.html>