Legalization of abortions in all 50 states of the United States

General Introduction: We have seen many things in the year 2022, a pandemic, protests, a monkeypox outbreak, and the overturn of Roe V. Wade. The original Supreme Court decision of Roe V. wade in 1973 ruled that a person can choose to have an abortion until a fetus becomes viable which was around when a fetus is about 24 weeks all across us as it was a federal law. This woman’s right was overruled on June 24, 2022, meaning that individual states can ban abortion rates. This means in those states women, no matter the case whether it be to save the mother, whether the child wouldn’t make it to term, regardless of a woman’s choice, if a state bans the procedure then that woman would not be allowed to get an abortion. My goal in this paper is to include citations that discuss the impact of the overturning of Roe V. Wade.

Source #1:

Summary: The research report “Life After Roe: Supporting Women And Families Facing Unexpected Pregnancies” by Bret Orell is about the struggles a woman can face during her pregnancy and what obstacles would lead her to wanting an abortion. This research describes ways that would allow women and families to be able to have a child without the previous obstacles such as chile care, health insurance, and unemployment. These tools would come in helpful for the women and families who dont have the access to a safe abortion as new laws have been set in place.

Rhetorical Situation: This research was published in light of new laws set in place where a state can now refuse abortion rights for woman regardless of the reason for needing an abortion. In the case of Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a Mississippi law was challenged where it stated that abortion after 15 weeks was banned. This was struck down by a court ruling and the state of Mississippi not only asked the court to uphold its abortion ban but to also overrule Roe V. Wade to rule that there is no constitutional right to an abortion. With Roe V. Wade brought into the conversation it opened up the opportunity for the court to review the case and reexamine the ruling. We now face the challenges that come after the Dobbs ruling as “it closes the era in which abortion policy was set at a national level and begins a new era in which abortion policy will be determined by state legislators and governors” (Orrell 1).

Audience: The reports inteded audience are government officials of the United States Of America. As more states intend to revoke abortion rights there are more issues to arrise as women who cannot provide, cannot care or simply do not want a child are now faced with their new reality of motherhood. The author wants the government to help support these women through new social policies and porgrams. Through out the research there are many examples of how to specifically help these women and why the government should enact these plans.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to inform the audience about the hardships these women and their families would have to face with the removal of abortion rights in their state. It’s also mainly about finding new programs and policies that would benefit those who cannot afford to raise a child at the time of their pregnancy.

Genre:The genere of this article is an academic journal.  It uses images of graphs and statistics to support the point of how certain things can help women in unwanted pregnancies.

Stance: The author heavily believes that it is the goverments duty to provide assistance to women who are impacted by the overturn ruling of Roe V. Wade in which women would no longer be able to have an abortion if the state decides that it is illegal. Ornell writes “All levels of government should begin a review of a review of social policies and programs designed to support disadvantaged families and children.”

Source #2:

Summary:In the article “ Ohio rape victim, 10, denied abortion as suspect charged” by Jamie Johnson it is reported that a month after the overturn of Roe V. Wade that a 10-year-old girl from Ohio was raped and impregnated by a 27-year-old male. In Ohio, at that time there was a trigger law which meant after 6 weeks of pregnancy the mother cannot get an abortion.

Rhetorical situation: The rhetorical situation to this article does share the same background as the rhetorical situation in source 1 as both regard the overturn of Roe V. Wade and how a state can ban abortions if they so choose to do so. More specifically, Ohio had enforced an abortion ban meaning noone could recieve or perform an abortion in their state. The author wrote this article to highlight the aftermath of Roe V. Wade being overturned.

Audience:The article is meant for those who are interested in what the overturn of Roe V. Wade would look like in a real scenario. It targets those who want to know the follow up of this case where the 10 year old girl who was denied an abortion in her own state.

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to inform the audience about some ripple effects of the Supreme Court’s Decision to revisit and overturn their Roe V. Wade ruling. The author wants to report the update on this story so others can be aware of the situation this 10 year old girl is facing.

Genre: This newspaper is an informational piece. It was a rather short article but gave the essential information to the readers without all the fluff. It even quotes statements the president ave on the situation which President Biden had stated that the girl would be receiving an abortion out of state.

Stance:There is a hint of disapproval about the states decision to deny her an abortion as the author uses quotes that shame the state such as President Biden stating, “Just last week it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim in Ohio – 10 years old – and she was forced to have to travel out of the state, to Indiana, to seek to terminate the pregnancy. Just imagine being that little girl.” It seems this article shares the same sentiment as source 1 where they both want the government to do better and to make changes for the benefit of the women who have to deal with unwanted pregnancies.

Source #3:

Summary:The article, titled “This is what life was like for women in America before Roe V. Wade” was written by Rickie Solinger. He writes about the possiblities of what were to happen if Roe V. Wade were reveversed. He reflects on how before abortions were legal women were forced to perform their own at home abortions if they truly needed one and how women were shamed by the authority and harassed if they were caught having an abortion.

Rhetorical Situation: This article dates back to 2018 when Donald Trump was our president. It was around the time to elect a new supreme court justice and Trump had chosen Brett Kavanaugh as a nominee. Kavanaugh being added to the supreme court justice would have meant there would be more chairs in favor to revoke abortion rights and make it illigal once again.

Audience:The article is meant to catch the attention of those who are interested in womens rights and more specifically, reproductive rights. As the title mentions Roe V. Wade it gains more attention by the intended audience so that his article is seen by those who are interested in the topic.

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to inform the audience of what the possible future of no abortion rights would look like. The article brings back how hard it was for women back when an abortion was illegal and women were harrassed for having an abortion in prior years.

Genre: The article is a narrative as the author Rickie Solinger as he uses more “I”, “we”, and “our”. He gives us his opinion on how the situation would be like if we revert back to criminalizing abortions.

Stance: Rickie Solinger has the very obvious stance throught the article that he is pro-choice. He clearly does not want Roe V. Wade to be overturned and as the same as the other sources he has to rely on the government to make sure this doesnt happen and if it does he has to rely on them to make new policies that would help these mothers.

Works Cited

“Ohio rape victim, 10, denied abortion as suspect charged.” Daily Telegraph [London, England], 15 July 2022, p. 11. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A710254003/OVIC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=c004d012. Accessed 11 Sept. 2022.

Orrell, Brent. Life After Roe: Supporting Women and Families Facing Unexpected Pregnancies. American Enterprise Institute, 2022. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep42743. Accessed 12 Sep. 2022.

Solinger, Rickie. “This Is What Life Was like for Women in America before Roe v. Wade.” Vox, Vox, 7 Sept. 2018, www.vox.com/              first-person/2018/7/3/17530862/brett-kavanaugh-abortion-roe-v-wade. Accessed 13 Sept.2022

Assimilation in Generations

Immigration has always been under the spotlight with many reforms and policies made to limit who can enter or stay in this country. One of the most recent hot topics in immigration news would be the governor of Texas, Gregg Abbott, sending the most recent migrants who arrive in Texas on busses to other states across the country. Olafimihan Oshin, a writer for The Hill, states in one of his articles that the reason Abbott is sending these busloads of migrants to major democratic cities such as New York, D.C, Chicago, etc. as a form of public protest against President Biden’s immigration policies (The Hill- Abbott sends the first bus of migrants to Chicago). After Chicago, many busses were sent to D.C and New York, where these newcomer immigrants were mostly placed in shelters and then mostly left to figure out what to do next on their own. Put in a new environment with nobody they know around them, these immigrants want to make something of themselves here in America but how? Assimilation is the path most of these newcomers go down to climb the ladder to success in this country.

The word “assimilation” can be defined as a minority group that chooses to adopt the cultural practices of the dominant group in society over whatever their original culture and customs were. There is also another slang word for this, it’s called being whitewashed. It’s what I’ve been called several times and I can never deny that fact since I technically am since I have no idea about anything about my country of Ecuador. My parents immigrated from Ecuador to New York where they had me and my brothers. Overtime, not being able to go back to their motherland and create a new life here surrounded by new faces they became assimilated into their environment, they didn’t wear their cultural outfits, they didn’t make traditional meals, they simply went along with what they observed was the way things went in the states. I grew up not knowing much about my culture and for some time I genuinely thought my country had no special culture to it but I was wrong. Seeing how assimilation essentially drained any remembrance of Ecuador from our family I wondered if the decision of assimilating could lead to the loss of many other families’ cultural identity.  

To belong is to be able to communicate with those around you but when you’re an immigrant and speak an entirely different language it becomes difficult to connect with your new home. I have witnessed firsthand how cruelly you can be treated if you speak a language other than English, which many perceive to be the superior language here in America. There is the concept that Bourdieu (1973) discusses how society can determine a specific language or culture that is seen as elite or “high class” and so with this concept in place in America those who don’t assimilate “become marginalized, possess little power, and are subject to lower status positions” (Brantmeier). With this kind of societal concept looming around, it’s obvious why immigrants would rather assimilate as they wouldn’t want to be seen as “low class” or “uncultured”. As immigrants become parents and raise their children to be part of the society they now live in, their children would never learn about the culture or language of their parent’s motherland if their parents were hard set on becoming one with American society. I for one was taught Spanish at home but when I entered school I strictly spoke English, and over time I started speaking English at home too. I remember days when I learned my grammar and nouns I was also teaching my parents what I was learning. They wanted to learn the language of their home desperately, they wanted to belong.

As children of immigrants grow older, they can take note of what their parent’s culture used to be either by history book or a simple googling but also if the parents chose to keep their culture alive their kids would be able to embrace that culture at the same time as experiencing the American culture. There comes a conflict with this though as this next generation finds themselves between two separate worlds at the same time. As Lyne George worded it in her Los Angeles Time article, “Not fully American, yet suddenly separated from what is familiar, these second-generation immigrants sometimes believe that the complexities of their new experience are inexplicable–even to those who love them.” Sometimes having two cultures being pushed on you either by family or friends, it becomes hard to know how you truly want to live your life and to feel doubtful of where you even belong. As someone who barely knew her parent’s culture and can’t even name it my own, it was obvious for me to gravitate towards the western culture but once you meet other people from your country and they embrace the culture more than you do it starts to feel like you are a phony and can’t connect with the culture now because it’s so unfamiliar. In a Los Angeles Time article, Martha Averalo describes the opposite of my experience it’s written, “For me, the transition was even more difficult than the war,” she recalls. “I’d grown up with a different set of values and principles at home, and it was a very different story at school or on the streets. It was very hard, especially not knowing the language. Kids are cruel. They call you names. They don’t want to hang around with you.”(George). Averalo’s experience was the reverse of mine as she is lost in American society and I am lost in Hispanic society, both of us feel like we don’t belong in the other but both cultures are in our faces practically taunting us about how we can’t join in. Averalo explains she feels like an outcast in America as she isn’t accustomed to life here and the customs compared to her life in El Salvador. She now has to belong to two different cultures, one of which she knows nothing about and it’s an overwhelming feeling for a kid especially when others around you criticize you for not knowing the culture that they grew up with.

Now, an interesting aspect is a racism. Despite many efforts of wanting to assimilate, immigrants are still faced with the fact that people will treat them as though they don’t belong just because of maybe their accent, their skin color, or just anything that makes them look different means that they would be targeted. In an article by The Guardian, Masako Fuki is interviewed about her experience of being a child migrant in Australia where she describes being angry about being the “good, quiet and assimilated” migrant as she mentions the microaggressions she faces every day like questions asking if she can write proper English, or being asked where she was REALLY from when she would first answer with Australia because people expect her to say what part of Asia she’s from since she looks Asian. It’s the little things that speak the most volume because it shows just how much you can be fully integrated and assimilated into a system and yet you are still an outcast just because you don’t have the same physical traits as those around you. Fuki mentions that her parents made sure she knew she was an unofficial ambassador for Japan (where she’s from) as a way to tell her that the way she acted in public and how others perceived her is what will give others their idea of what an Asian is “supposed” to be like. Her parents kept the Japanese culture alive in their life and Fuki was raised around that but while they were trying to semi-assimilate into the Australian culture they were still faced with stereotypes. While this was in Australia, the same still applies to America, even more so since ex-president Trump spread his hatred for immigrants across America, I myself have had people clutch their purses while I walk by or cross the street if they feel I’ve been walking behind them too long. Sometimes even being whitewashed doesn’t save you from still being an outsider in your own country.

At the end of the day, immigrants come here for one goal, to make a better life for themselves and their families. They try to do their best to assimilate, whether it be by learning English, or by learning simple customs like going to a laundry mat. The idea is to fit in and try to feel like they can belong in their new home. While my parents in a sense did give up their cultural identity to live here, I don’t believe it was necessary. Many families did manage to make it work, while there is a struggle to maintain two identities, and can sometimes be hard to identify you can find others who can welcome you into their group and make you feel welcome. Arevalo, from the Los Angeles Times article, goes on further in the article despite explaining how hard it was to get used to the culture here and feel safe she goes on to say that regardless of all the pressure to become assimilated, to become whitewashed, she stuck to her culture because she believes that’s where her self worth comes from, it comes from her culture.  As I watch my mother, a laundry worker, help those new arrivals from the busses that Gregg Abbott sent to New York, giving them lessons on how to properly use the washing machines and how to insert money to get the quarters, even explaining what a quarter gives me an insight into how hard it must be to actually try to assimilate in America. In the end, I don’t think that with assimilation ones culture dies, I think it goes on with the person and in many ways, they still use some things they learned in their culture in their daily lives here, whether it may be a new herbal to cure sickness or just some oils and such to take care of their body and skin, either way, our culture seems to stick with us regardless of how hard you try to get rid of it.

Works Cited

Oshin, Olafimihan. “Abbott Sends First Bus of Migrants to Chicago.” The Hill, 1 Sept. 2022, thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3623795-texas-governor-sends-first-bus-of-migrants-to-chicago/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2022.

‌Brantmeier, Edward J. “‘Speak our language … abide by our philosophy’: language & cultural assimilation at a U.S. Midwestern high school.” Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, spring 2007. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A191817952/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=55bdc794. Accessed 10 Nov. 2022.

George, Lynell. “Children of Immigrants Often Torn between Two Cultures : Assimilation: As Parents Continue to Bring Their Families’ Hopes and Expectations to the United States, a Complex Tension Can Develop for Young New Americans.” Los Angeles Times, 28 Nov. 1993, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-28-me-61948-story.html.

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Fukui, Masako. “Being a Good, Quiet and Assimilated “Model Minority” Is Making Me Angry | Masako Fukui.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 28 July 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/28/being-a-good-quiet-and-assimilated-model-minority-is-making-me-angry.

Genre 1: Persuasive

We have seen many things in the year 2022, a pandemic, protests, a monkeypox outbreak, and the overturn of Roe V. Wade. The original Supreme Court decision of Roe V. wade in 1973 ruled that a person can choose to have an abortion until a fetus becomes viable which was around when a fetus is about 24 weeks all across us as it was a federal law. This woman’s right was overruled on June 24, 2022, meaning that states can ban abortion rates. This means in those states women, no matter the case whether it be to save the mother, or whether the child wouldn’t make it to term, regardless of a woman’s choice, if a state bans the procedure then that woman would not be allowed to get an abortion. My goal in this paper is to include citations that discuss the events that have happened since the overturning of Roe V. Wade.

To express my point clearly, my paper will be sectioned into 4 categories. The first would revolve around the actual reasoning behind overturning Roe V. Wade and what led up to the final decision. In the second I plan to express the need for abortions in a medical sense for stillborn babies, ectopic pregnancies, and such. For the third, I am going to touch on the humanity of situations when abortion should be an option such as rape, incest, and teen pregnancy, and the simplicity of just having the choice of not wanting to bear a child. I conclude on the fourth to describe the importance of this law being re-established as a federal law. The last page would include my Works Cited.                     

In the case of Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a Mississippi law was challenged where it stated that abortion after 15 weeks was banned. This was struck down by a court ruling and the state of Mississippi not only asked the court to uphold its abortion ban but to also overrule Roe V. Wade to rule that there is no constitutional right to an abortion. With Roe V. Wade brought into the conversation it opened up the opportunity for the court to review the case and reexamine the ruling. We now face the challenges that come after the Dobbs ruling as “it closes the era in which abortion policy was set at a national level and begins a new era in which abortion policy will be determined by state legislators and governors” (Orrell 1). This becomes a very prevalent issue as states who choose to completely ban abortions need to find ways to care for women in pregnancies that are medically unsafe.

When abortions become illegal, that won’t stop abortions, it’ll only stop safe abortions. Medical professionals will have to let their patients die if their state has an abortion ban because otherwise they would be breaking the law and risking their medical license to save a life. This kind of fear from doctors has been seen in an incident in Nicaragua where a young woman was left to die from vaginal bleeding as the doctors “did not treat the woman for fear of breaking the law.” (W.H.O 8). These kinds of situations are going to become more prevalent in the United States as women are denied life-saving care with these new laws. As women aren’t given the right to abort there will be an increase in the number of at-home abortions which can be seen in countries like Peru. As abortions are also banned in Peru they have backstreet abortions where the safest ones are also the most expensive ones so people opt for a cheap, unsafe procedure where they don’t call emergency services for help when something goes wrong with the procedure since they “fear being reported to police” which in turn “prevents them from seeking prompt medical attention.” (W.H.O 9). Peru’s norm will soon become the norm for U.S citizens living in states with an abortion ban. The people in those states may not have the means to move to another state that grants them the right to an abortion, but they will do what they can to have it.

People become desperate when they can’t get what they need, especially when given the circumstances of carrying the child of their rapist, being underage and pregnant, or being financially unstable, all these reasons can make a person determined to find ways to end their pregnancy, either safely in a hospital or in the bathtub at home. A month after the overturn of Roe V. Wade we saw the ramifications of this decision. It was reported that a 10-year-old girl from Ohio was raped and impregnated by a 27-year-old male. In Ohio, at that time there was a trigger law that meant after 6 weeks of pregnancy the mother cannot get an abortion. The young girl wanted to receive an abortion but was denied in the State of Ohio because she was 3 days over the six-week limit. Just 3 days. The new trigger law would force a child to bear the baby of their rapist. This case became very popular as it directly shined a light on the problem of overturning Roe V. Wade, social media was quick to rally around this girl and advocate for her to receive an abortion. As the face of her rapist circled around as he was under arrest it really made people upset knowing what he did. The 10-year-old would have to have her most traumatic experience dissected by politicians who wanted her to carry the baby to term regardless of her small developing body and young age, she was expected to be a mother in Ohio. Major social media pages posting about her story brought awareness to the issue and with all the public outcry her case had been brought to the attention of the president. The president had gone on to say, “she was forced to have to travel out of the state, to Indiana, to seek to terminate the pregnancy. Just imagine being that little girl.” (Daily Telegraph 1). This won’t be the last of similar situations where people have to bear an undesired child but not all of those cases will have the luck of this 10-year-old to have been picked up by the media.

            Throughout the different sections of the context of Roe V. Wade being overturned, then the necessity of safe accessible medical abortions, and mentioning the 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio, are all to prove the point that abortions being banned in states will cause nothing but more issues. We should pay attention to the countries that have banned abortions and realize how much those women are suffering, and dying in backstreet abortions, which isn’t something the U.S should overlook. With social media helping the ten-year-old girl hopefully, people continue to spread the dangers of this overturn. I am sure as months pass by we will hear more about women in the U.S dying in emergency rooms because a doctor can’t legally save the mother because the doctor can risk their license if she’s pregnant.  Putting laws on woman’s bodies is something unbelievable in today’s age but here we are, fighting for the right to choose what happens to our bodies.

Genre 2: Poetry

Is abortion such a dirty word?

The way some people react when the word is slightly uttered, you would think you said you murdered someone

Well, I guess in their eyes that’s exactly what you said, to them you are a murderer

To them, you are killing Gods greatest gift, the blessing of all blessings

Do they know you were raped?

Do they know that the pregnancy is unviable and you run the risk of dying?

Do they know you’re in your poorest state?

Do they know you have career plans and lifestyle plans in your life that don’t include children?

No, they don’t. And they don’t care.

Why must my body be an incubator? Is that all I’m worth?

Just a baby makin’ machine, no thoughts needed, no desires needed, no opinion needed

No matter how many attempts to wipe that word clean, that word that so many women have died for, that word being held over our heads in society, hell, even in court, the word is muddy

Rational:

The audience I am aiming for are those interested in abortion, more currently those who are aware of the Supreme court’s overturn of Roe  V. Wade. I wanted to inform them of the importance of this decision and its impact on women in the country. With the persuasive essay, my purpose was to give them all the facts about this case being overturned and give them examples of how this law being taken away is harmful. Knowing real-life scenarios gives people a stronger sense of what is going on and can appeal to their emotions and can help even sway people to see how abortion rights are necessary for the United States. Seeing a 10-year-old have her body debated in court is something that many people can agree is just simply inhumane. As for my poem, the purpose was to speak on the perspective of being a woman in today’s political climate and how a woman’s body has become something others think they can have an opinion on and criticize them for having an abortion. I wanted to give the sentiment of anger and frustration in the poem so that others could understand the emotions most women share at this time as they have had the rights to their bodies revoked.

Reflection:

            As I was deciding on genres to write and how to write about a topic there were a couple of things that came my way. Trying to address the audience in a direct but meaningful way was one of the things that became an obstacle. I was unsure of how I wanted to get my point across either by appealing to their emotions or by strictly sticking to facts but regardless I decided both would work most efficiently. With both, it was easier to use facts to support why abortion rights being gone is hurting women and with that emotional appeal, I think it made a stronger case in the essay portion of the paper. As for the poem, the strict use of trying to express women’s anger an frustration would be effective in getting people to sympathize and even share the same sentiment when it came to the overturn of Roe V. Wade. This process was different from my research essay because of the fact I got to express my own opinion and stance on a social issue while in my research paper I had to strictly stick to facts without conveying any sort of personal opinion on the topic. In this paper, I chose to do a persuasive essay and a poem as my two genres because both express the opinion that Roe V. Wade being overturned is unfair to women all around the country. I thought that there would be two options for my audience to choose from that would accurately depict my stance on the issue and people could relate to either one.  I think through a persuasive essay it would appeal more to those who wanted a more in-depth viewpoint of abortion rights being revoked and a poem is short and is more appealing to those who want a direct sense of what is going on and what the stance on this issue is. I found myself giving the audience a fact and then giving a real-life example of how the fact has been an obstacle for women. I think my strongest fact what talking about abortion rights being banned in one state and then talking about a 10-year-old child who could not get an abortion after being raped in that state. This experience was somewhat better than my research essay mainly because it felt easier to feel excited about writing since I was expressing my opinions and emotions on this topic.

Works Cited

“Ohio rape victim, 10, denied abortion as suspect charged.” Daily Telegraph [London, England], 15 July 2022, p. 11. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A710254003/OVIC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=c004d012. Accessed 23 Nov. 2022.

Orrell, Brent. Life After Roe: Supporting Women and Families Facing Unexpected Pregnancies. American Enterprise Institute, 2022. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep42743. Accessed 23 Nov. 2022.

Solinger, Rickie. “This Is What Life Was like for Women in America before Roe v. Wade.” Vox, Vox, 7 Sept. 2018, www.vox.com/              first-person/2018/7/3/17530862/brett-kavanaugh-abortion-roe-v-wade.

Accessed 24 Nov. 2022