Abortion, (Women's) Right or Wrong?

     For this assignment I chose to critique "Texas Women Aren't Going to Take Abortion Restrictions Lightly," written by Leslie Tisdale, who is a political communications Senior from Corpus Christi.  The Daily Texan has published her article which can be found HERE. Obviously her intended audience fall into three categories which are 1.) Texans 2.) abortion advocates and 3.) women. I will start by explicitly stating I am middle of the road on abortion and that isn't what I wish to discuss. But I will at least share my view to start.

     It is hard to say what is right or wrong in the case of abortion. In the case of a rape crime then I would side with those that are pro-choice. In the case of ignorance and lack of responsibility I would say that I am pro-life. In either case however a single question beckons an answer: Should the person be allowed to terminate a pregnancy, regardless of cause? Should the person be denied the ability to terminate and be forced to raise a child in a potentially unfit and unprepared environment? Or perhaps some combination question of the two? As one could see I do not have the answers. When I do think I've found one it inevitably leads to more questions. But that isn't what this blog post about.

     What riles me up about her post, this topic, and the recent onslaught of op-ed pieces by such authors is that rather than focusing on the [Human] Rights issue at hand, Feminists such as Tisdale have managed to turn this argument into a struggle for [Women's] Rights. With her fiery passion and comments such as "For many women, it seems as if men have always wondered why women carry on about their rights- I mean, women get to vote now, don’t we?" or the emotionally charged "Texas women are mad as hell, and we are not going to take it, " it seems that Tisdale isn't as concerned with the question of whether or not abortion is right or wrong or whether or not it is safe (and oddly in this abortion argument she fails to really touch on either of these questions) as she is with whether a woman should have the right to make the choice she wants: In this case, terminate a pregnancy.

     That a pregnancy - which is the foundation of this hot political issue and thus this blog -  happens to occur inside of a woman's body should not inescapably thrust the issue into the realm of Women's Rights. It is still fundamentally a Human Rights issue asking the question, Should a Human, or anyone, have the  right to terminate a (potential) life? Drawing into this discussion the notion of Women's Rights ultimately is an irrelevant rhetorical device to help advance the cause and, at least in my opinion, giving folks like Tisdale an immature and unprofessional image as they attempt to further convolute an already difficult subject.