In my speech, I analyzed the civic appeals of the Women’s March and my artifact was a poster from the march that states, “My uterus is private property.” In comparison, for my Rhetorical Analysis Essay, I will be analyzing the rhetorical appeals of a poster from the March for Life that states, “I am thankful that my mom, a victim of incest, chose adoption.” The two artifacts are from two marches that are virtually on opposite ends of the political spectrum, one advocates for freedom of abortion and one aims to advocate for the banning of abortions.
The artifact was created by a woman who was a part of the 2018 March for Life through Washington, D.C., protesting abortions and the excessive freedoms that they believe are given to women concerning abortion and reproductive rights. This artifact argues that there is no excuse for a woman to get an abortion, even in cases of incest, because adoption is an available alternative.
I was especially drawn to this artifact in comparison to the posters that simply stated, “Abortion is inhumane” or “End abortion” because this artifact argues an alternative while also showing the first-hand experience of the woman who created the poster. I think that this poster is appropriate for in-depth analysis because of everything that the one sentence implies, argues, and suggests. I also believe that this artifact is appropriate for an in-depth analysis because it is a part of a bigger idea, and through this artifact, I am also able to analyze the March for Life and the ideas associated with it as a whole. I find it intriguing that the artifact emphasizes incest rather than accidental pregnancies because pregnancies as a result of rape/incest are rarer than the accidental ones which are the most typical pregnancies to occur and be aborted. Additionally, there are many people that believe that incest should be one of the exceptions to abortion, so this is especially appealing. I hope to additionally explore other appeals that the March for Life uses, in addition to personal, and atypical ones like the one I’m using as my artifact.
In my essay, I plan to compare the appeals of the March for Life to the Women’s March by analyzing their rhetorical situations, logical appeals, pathetic appeals, and ethical appeals.