The Abortion Controversy 

Abortion is an extremely controversial topic to talk about.  As an official definition, abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy.  Many people have different opinions about abortion.  People think that some should have abortion rights, and some think that abortion should be banned.  I will be discussing the rhetoric synthesis of a website, a magazine, a newspaper, and a peer-reviewed article about the views on abortion.

Raped, Pregnant, And Denied A Life- Saving Abortion- All At 10-Years Old, an article by Debbie Sharnak on the website amnestyusa.org.  The article talks about a 10-year old girl who was raped by her step father in Paraguay.  She became pregnant at a very young age, causing many complications and even the possibility of death.  The author is Debbie Sharnak, who is an Argentina- Paraguay country specialist and audience she is speaking to is the general public or anyone who is willing to listen to this story.  This is evident because that the end of her article, she states, “…join the effort to save the life of this young girl whose life is in danger and demand that she have access to a safe abortion.” (Sharnak,1). The tone of this article is very serious and exceptionally passionate about the subject. She repeatedly states that the girl is going to die if she is not able to get an abortion.  Unfortunately, the author doesn’t state which complications the child could suffer from.  Sharnak’s purpose is to bring awareness to the fact that Paraguay’s government is leaving this girl pregnant, which will leave her with many health complications.  Sharnak wants to get the people’s attention, so that the people can demand to give the child an abortion. The article states, “… in Latin America, the risk of maternal death is four times higher among adolescents younger than 16 years old.” (Sharnak, 1). Seeing that Paraguay doesn’t allow abortions, so she was sent to a “center for young mothers.”  Sharnak also quotes Tarah Demant, Senior Directory of the Identity and Discrimination Unit at Amnesty International USA saying, “In denying this girl her right to a life-saving abortion, Paraguay is re-victimizing a child who has already rape by a close relative.” (Sharnak, 1). The young girl is essentially left with her rapist’s baby, which can result in her losing her life.  The genre of this writing is informal.  The readers know this because she used emotional language in her writing.  She uses the words, “raped”, “high risk”, “death”, and many more, which evoke sympathy and sadness.  The medium of Sharnak’s article is a website.  The language of the article is fairly clear.  Sharnak states, “…Paraguayan authorities’ decision results in grave violations of the rights to life, to health, and to physical and mental integrity…” (Sharnak, 1).  The author clearly expresses that since Paraguay will be violating the rights of these young girls because they will not receive an abortion.  Lastly, based on her purpose, her stance can be determined that she wants the child to get an abortion, not only so that she doesn’t have to carry her rapists/step-father’s baby, but to save her life.  To sum this up, this article explains that a girl in Paraguay needs an abortion and she can’t receive it, which can cause her to lose her life.  

My Two Abortions is a magazine article written by an anonymous woman, that expresses her opinion on the option of pro-life and pro-choice based on her religion and her two experience with abortions.  The author is unknown because she wants to keep her identity and her family’s identity private and the reason she decided to share her story to the public, was to state the fact that the topic of abortion isn’t black or white, that it is more complex than that.  She states in her article that, “It is not as simple as legal or illegal, a personal right to an undeniable wrong. It is as simple as confronting the experiences of real women.” (Anonymous, 20).  She believes that it is a matter of educating oneself about other’s experiences.  Her tone and genre of the article is formal because she is expressing her experiences when she is describing her two abortions, along with the caption, “I never thought it would happen again.  Then it did.” (Anonymous, 19).  The author’s medium is a magazine.  The author’s stance on abortion is that she dislikes it.  She expresses that she felt that she didn’t have a choice in getting an abortion, each time.  “ I dislike it, because it speaks to the opposite of my own experience.  I didn’t think I had a choice.” (Anonymous, 19).  The language the anonymous author is direct.  The subtitle the article was given says, “I never thought it would happen again.  Then it did.” (Anonymous, 1).  This represents the time where she needs to get an abortion because she needed it to save her life.  The first time she had an abortion, she talks about not wanting to be a burden on everyone and the second time she got and abortion, her IUD, which is a form of birth control, pierced in her uterus. So in a way, she had no choice, she had to get an abortion.  Understandably, the anonymous author wrote her story to explain that she had no choice in whether or not she can get an abortion.

There’s No Going to Disneyland After Abortion : There is no ‘Happily Ever After’ To be found there for anyone is a newspaper article about a women named Melissa Ohden who speaks about her experience on abortion and how it effected her family relations, the view on women’s rights on abortion, and the role that Planned Parenthood has on women’s lives.  The author, Ohden, is from Ontario, Canada, with a daughter named Olivia.  Her and Olivia are watching Disney On Ice, when Ohden starts to think about abortion, which ruins her time with era daughter.  The reason why she wrote her story was to convey to women who had had an abortion and the public, that life after an abortion, will not be a fairytale.  She states, “ It not only ends a life, but it transforms others forever.  And not just a women’s life, but a man’s life, grandparents’ lives, aunts, uncles’, siblings, cousins, friends, communities. ” (Ohden, 1).  In her opinion that, not only life, but one’s mindset and relationships, are very different after an abortion.  The tone and genre her writing portrays, is that it is solemn informative because is she wants to make it known that her life has never been the same, saying, “… -how I can never turn off the reality in my heart and in my head…” (Ohden, 1).   Her way of perceiving life was forever change from the traumatic experience, such as an abortion and it is hard to determine whether or not she is pro-abortion.  The medium that the article is written is in a newspaper.  The language Ohden uses is understandable, because it is based on her story.  She states, “…I kept thinking over and over again about how my life hasn’t been ‘normal’ since I found out I was an abortion survivor.” (Ohden, 1).  She goes further into her story , which explains why she believes that she thinks abortion is sometimes needed.  Her story conveys that getting an abortion isn’t something that a person can forget about.  

The Paternalistic Argument against Abortion is a peer-reviewed article by Itzel Mayans and Moisés Vaca.  In this article, the two authors talk about their stance and purpose on abortion, that abortion should be banned because it endangers women and it corrupts their mortal status.  The authors are writing their article to the people who also have the same views on abortion and to the people who disagree, in order to show them their views and ideas.  Mayans and Vaca mention the Catholic Church to help prove their ideas by saying, “…, according to which the harm produced by abortion is related to a sexual sin rather then to the murder of an ensouled being, persisted in different forms within the Catholic Church…” (Mayans and Vaca, 1).  To the Catholic Church, abortion is more considered as a sin, rather than murder.  They also mention the psychological damage women receive from abortion.  Mayans and Vaca say, “… empirical evidence supports the claim that most women who undergo an abortion fail to achieve a healthy psychological adjustment afterwards.” (Mayans and Vaca, 1).   This means women who receive an abortion are not mentally stable as they were before the abortion.  This quote also shows the type of language the authors use, which is The article is expository because it uses multiple sources that help expand the authors ideas, referencing the Roe v. Casey case, quotes from Planned Parenthood, the Catholic Church, and more.  The medium the authors use to express their opinions is through an informative peer-reviewed article.  The Paternalistic Argument against Abortion, a peer-reviewed article, is about how abortion should be banned because it makes women vulnerable and it alters women’s principles.

The author is anyone who communicates with someone or people.  The author can also be one or more people.  The author can communicate is different ways, suing writing, like in an article or magazine and a video, like a commercial.  The authors background can also effect their writing.  The audience also plays a role in an author’s writing.  The audience is defined as a person(s) that is receiving the writing or video.  In Raped, Pregnant, And Denied A Life- Saving Abortion- All At 10-Years Old, the author’s name is Debbie Sharnak, and she is an Argentina- Paraguay country specialist, so since she has a background for studying Paraguay’s government and rules, she is passionate about the young girl’s health because Paraguay won’t allow her to get an abortion. The audience is the general public.  In My Two Abortions, the author wants to remain anonymous because she wants to keep her family safe.  The only things we do know about her is that she had two abortions, she has a husband, she is was Christian and now she Catholic, and she has a young daughter.  The audience is also to the public.  In There’s No Going to Disneyland After Abortion : There is no ‘Happily Ever After’ To be found there for anyone, the author’s name is Melissa Ohden and she has a young daughter.  The audience is to the general public or to anyo, ne who is willing to hear out her ideas.  Finally in The Paternalistic Argument against Abortion, the authors are Itzel Mayans and Moisés Vaca, and unfortunately, the article doesn’t give the readers much information about them and they’re audience is the the people who have the same views as them.  As authors, their background makes their writing meaning and it is important because  it makes their writing feel relatable to their audience.  

The tone and purpose are also a crucial aspect of an author’s writing.  The tone of the piece reflects the author’s attitude towards the topic.  The purpose is what the author wants to convey to the readers.  The language used in the articles help the readers fully understand the topic.  In Raped, Pregnant, And Denied A Life- Saving Abortion- All At 10-Years Old, the tone is serious and yet, passionate, and the purpose is to try to get this young girl an abortion.  In My Two Abortion, the tone is formal and the purpose is to explain that having an abortion is more complex, rather than it simply being “black and white”.  In There’s No Going to Disneyland After Abortion : There is no ‘Happily Ever After’ To be found there for anyone, the tone is solemn and the purpose of the article is to explain that life after an abortion is not the same as it was before.  In The Paternalistic Argument against Abortion, the tone is serious and the purpose is to expose their ideas on how abortion should be banned.  Each article uses sophisticated, yet straightforward language so that the audience can understand their topic.  The tone, purpose, and language of an author’s work needs to be clear in order to captivate their audience. 

Genre is the form that the piece is written in.  A genre of a piece can be determined by the purpose if the writing.  Stance can also be defines as the attitude towards the topic of the author’s writing.  Medium is also how the piece is delivered. In Raped, Pregnant, And Denied A Life- Saving Abortion- All At 10- Years Old, the genre of the article is informal and the author’s stance is that she supports abortion.  In My Two Abortions, the genre is formal and the author’s stance is that she also supports abortion.  In There’s No Going to Disneyland After Abortion : There is no ‘Happily Ever After’ To be found there for anyone, the genre is also informal and the author’s stance on abortion is that she supports abortion.  Lastly, in The Paternalistic Argument against Abortion, the genre is expository and the authors’ stance on abortion is that they disagree with abortion and they want it banned.  All four articles are delivered in a form of a website, a magazine, a newspaper, and a peer-reviewed article.  Genre, stance, and medium makes the author’s story, ideas, make more sense to the reader.  

In conclusion, abortion has been up to debate for the past few years.  Many people have different opinions on the topic.  The different sources provide a different perspective on abortion.  The website article, the magazine, and the newspaper provide the same perspective, that abortion is a good thing, and that it is needed and they all use the rhetorical strategies the same way, expect for the purpose. The peer-reviewed article on the other hand, is the opposite.  It provides the perspective that abortion is not needed and that it should be banned.  Since abortion is complicated, the discussion will go on until something is gone.

Work Cited 

“Raped, Pregnant, and Denied a Life-Saving Abortion-All at 10-Years-Old.” Amnesty International USA, 14 May 2015, https://www.amnestyusa.org/raped-pregnant-and-denied-a-life-saving-abortion-all-at-10-years-old/.

“My Two Abortions.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, web-a-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=f41d6677-2833-4e5f-97ca-26d9b1ed4b7a%40sdc-v-sessmgr01.

Ohden, Melissa. “There Is No Going To Disneyland After Abortion.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, web-a-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=952ce178-0280-4dcd-b8fe-8153f61b3d56%40sdc-v-sessmgr02.

Mayans, Itzel, and Moisés Vaca. “The Paternalistic Argument against Abortion.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/full/10.1111/hypa.12385.