Spring Break
Ban on abortion procedure violates women's rights
By: Jonathan Steed
Issue date: 11/3/03 Section: Opinion
On April 25, 2004, thousands around America will merge in Washington D.C. to rally for something that hangs in serious jeopardy: women's reproductive rights. Many abortion rights activists feel that 2004 may be the last opportunity Americans have to repel the vicious attack on women's health choices by the radical religious right. With the Senate's passage of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which bans the procedure known as intact dilation and extraction, people across the United States are beginning to wake up and realize that a woman's right to choose when and where to start a family is something that cannot be taken for granted.
President George W. Bush and his Republican rubber-stamp Congress have not only waged war on Iraq, but also on American women and their basic rights. The right for an individual woman to control her body is something religious fundamentalists have never supported, and if they get their way, will abolish in the near future. According to The Nation, the recent ban on late term abortions is the first federal ban on an abortion method since the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which granted women a constitutional right to have an abortion.
The issue of late term abortions has itself been distorted with half-truths and falsehoods. Most of the anti-abortion propaganda floating around about late term abortions refers to them as "partial birth" abortions. Yet this term itself is not medically accurate. Partial birth abortions are not mentioned in any medical textbooks. The term is nothing more than political jargon aimed at making the procedure seem cruel and deserving of a ban. The anti-abortion movement has been effective in misleading the public on issues such as the late term abortion procedure.
Late term abortions make up a small percentage of the overall abortion procedures practiced in the United States. They are often done when medical information about the fetus or its affect on the mother's health becomes fully realized. Expectant mothers whose fetuses have physical deformities are often left with no other option than the late term abortion.
President George W. Bush and his Republican rubber-stamp Congress have not only waged war on Iraq, but also on American women and their basic rights. The right for an individual woman to control her body is something religious fundamentalists have never supported, and if they get their way, will abolish in the near future. According to The Nation, the recent ban on late term abortions is the first federal ban on an abortion method since the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which granted women a constitutional right to have an abortion.
The issue of late term abortions has itself been distorted with half-truths and falsehoods. Most of the anti-abortion propaganda floating around about late term abortions refers to them as "partial birth" abortions. Yet this term itself is not medically accurate. Partial birth abortions are not mentioned in any medical textbooks. The term is nothing more than political jargon aimed at making the procedure seem cruel and deserving of a ban. The anti-abortion movement has been effective in misleading the public on issues such as the late term abortion procedure.
Late term abortions make up a small percentage of the overall abortion procedures practiced in the United States. They are often done when medical information about the fetus or its affect on the mother's health becomes fully realized. Expectant mothers whose fetuses have physical deformities are often left with no other option than the late term abortion.
Be sure to include your name, major, and class year. Submissions without this information are subject to deletion.
By submitting a comment, you agree to thebatt.com's Terms of Use.
You may also send a Mail Call to The Battalion at mailcall@thebatt.com