Take a minute to put yourself in the shoes of a scared young woman going to make what she has decided is the best decision for her at that time: to terminate a pregnancy. As she walks into Planned Parenthood, she is accosted by protesters begging her to change her mind, threatening her with going to hell, or holding a sign proclaiming “Planned Parenthood sells baby parts.”
Abortion is one of those hot-button topics that generally makes people tense up and change the subject as quickly as possible. When it’s not being hushed and stigmatized, the communication about it is generally hostile and one-sided to one extreme or the other. I believe that abortion should be destigmatized and talked about in a more open and accepting way. Furthermore, I think protests outside of abortion clinics are unacceptable as they show disrespect to the woman’s choice.
Communication should involve a two-sided conversation in which both sides are listened to and respected. However, the current state of rhetoric regarding abortion is an argument rather than a conversation. Protestors, signs, and even people in the woman’s life all adamantly claim to know what’s best for her. I have seen billboards, posters, posts on the internet, etc. shaming women for their choice and spreading nonfactual information about abortion. This isn’t to say that pro-choice protests aren’t common to see as well, and I think that the communication should be better on both sides in some cases. However, many of these protests are in defense of women who are being harassed for their choices outside of a clinic.
Overall, I believe that the state of rhetoric regarding abortion could be defined as overly critical. Everyone has an opinion, and most people seem to be dying to push that opinion onto someone, especially a woman who is exercising her right to abortion. Changing abortion laws is a whole other topic, but ultimately I believe that regardless of what you would chose for yourself, you need to respect another person’s choice. A woman facing a difficult choice already does not need your opinion on her body forced down her throat.
One thing we discussed in class this week was civic duty, and something pointed out was that at the bare minimum, we should respect, listen to, and be kind to others. This means dropping the criticism and stigma around abortion and respecting the choices of your fellow citizens.