Philip Brutkiewicz
Dr. Emerson
IDMD 101
10 October 2023
Short Paper
Written by Harriet Pilpel, The Right of Abortion advocates for the ability to get an abortion in the United States. The article first explores the issue of population control. The U.S. is experiencing overpopulation, and while few argue for compulsory sterilization to combat this, little is done to make birth control easily available for those who want it. This is particularly a problem for the poor and underprivileged, such as racial minorities. Part of this is due to strict anti-abortion laws in many states. These laws limit healthy abortions in these areas to those who can afford an out of hospital abortion, which are usually middle and upper class white women. Society should see that in order to slow population growth rate without compulsion, abortion must be made easily and legally available.
This article connects to the issues regarding death in Care and Cure by Jacob Stegenga. In Chapter 3, the death of an organism is contrasted with the death of a person. While most define death as the permanent end of biological functioning in an organism, many believe biological functioning alone does not make us alive. While to be an organism one only needs a heartbeat, to be a person one must have consciousness and a soul. This question of what makes us dead has in turn asked us to question what makes us alive. In the context of abortion, a young unborn fetus is organismically alive. This is the view which many lawmakers in our country have taken, such as the Supreme Court when overturning Roe v. Wade and removing the constitutional right to abortion (“Roe v. Wade”). On the other hand, the unborn child has not yet achieved consciousness, thereby not a “person” in the model that the book presents. This issue is significant as depending on which criteria decision-makers in our country take, access to healthy abortions can either be easily available or scarce like in many states today. Lawmakers, such as the Supreme Court, are ignorant of the fact that abortions, like it or not, are going to happen. This is seen in a quote from the article, saying, “Abortion is still the most widespread…method of fertility control in the modern world.” If abortions are vitally important to reduce unwanted births and are going to happen regardless, we should legalize them and promote healthy abortions in hospitals. Lawmakers should be more worried about a person’s livelihood and those already born than the lives of the unborn.
This piece on the right to abortion also highlights the issue presented in Care and Cure of physician-assisted death. The Hippocratic Oath states that physicians must cause no harm and only give beneficial treatments, but if the child is not wanted and cannot be taken care of, is harm truly being inflicted or really just avoided? Physicians should answer to the mother’s decision, as the parent can decide for themself if the procedure will benefit them more than harm in an abortion. As seen in Care and Cure, patient autonomy has been an ideal of American law since the 1950s. Physicians must seek their patients’ consent, and there is no greater scenario to abide by this rule than in the decision to receive an abortion. By physicians assisting in abortions, it not only gives a higher rate of success and safety, but also mental comfort to mothers who can trust a physician more than someone unqualified. According to the Atlantic, there are 8000-1000 abortions in hospitals compared to 1 million outside hospitals annually. We need to support physician-assisted abortions in hospitals so that less people are attempting home abortions that are much more dangerous for the child and the mother. As the article states, we must not compel the “unwilling to bear the unwanted”.
Not only does our nation have a problem with general access to abortions, but there are major inequalities in abortion access based on race, color, and socioeconomic status. This is in large part due to the fact that white women tend to be able to better afford out of hospital abortion care, whether it be in their area or traveling to a different state. As Pilpel reveals in her article, “women whose deaths were associated with abortion in New York City in a typical year were 56 percent black, 23 percent Puerto Rican, and 21 percent white”. This sort of statistic is the focus of Hausman’s article What’s Wrong with Health Inequalities?. The article evaluates whether health inequalities involve injustice and compares these inequalities to the standards of the World Health Organization. The World Health Organization, or WHO, generally defines an injustice as a lack of the ability “to be given an opportunity to have equal health status insofar as possible”. In the statistic of New York City abortion deaths, this is a clear injustice as black women and women of color in the city are at a much higher risk of dying than white women. City officials and hospitals must focus on offering easier access to abortions in areas where these women are statistically underserved, such as predominantly black or Puerto Rican neighborhoods. These officials and hospitals can do this by building more hospitals in these areas, setting up clinics, and building trust between the physician and patient. If the patient does not trust the physician, as seen in Care and Cure, the patient is much less likely to tell a physician the entire story or even see the physician again. Take the example of Anne Dodge, a patient who had to go to many different primary care doctors as no doctor truly listened to her situation. Eventually Dodge received a proper diagnosis after going to a doctor that gave her a proper evaluation (Introduction-How Doctors Think). Just as with Dodge, physicians should listen to the mother’s demands when performing an abortion to prevent physical and mental trauma. The end of a possible life is sure to give these women feelings of regret and depression, and physicians must coordinate check-ups after the procedure to ensure well-being. This is why it is important in the fight against abortion injustice to not just have clinics in these areas, but to also have qualified physicians to serve these women.
Abortion access is a right that all women should have, regardless of where they live. Though some argue for the organismic model of living, an unborn fetus should not be considered living as it has not yet attained consciousness. Lawmakers should use this model to guide their decisions and make abortions easier to obtain. Physicians should be the guiding hand in these abortions, not only performing them but also guiding the mother mentally. We must also try to eliminate injustice in inequalities the best way possible through a reallocation of resources. Abortions have been happening since the advent of humanity. They always will, so we should make them as safe and available as possible.
Works Cited
Hausman, Daniel M. “What’s Wrong with Health Inequalities .” Journal of Political Philosophy: Volume 15, Number 1, University of Wisconsin-Madison , 2007.
Introduction- How Doctors Think , 10 Oct. 2023.
Pilpel, Harriet. “The Right of Abortion.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Aug. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/06/the-right-of-abortion/303366/.
“Roe v. Wade.” Oyez.Org , www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18. Accessed 8 Oct. 2023.
Stegenga, Jacob. Care and Cure an Introduction to Philosophy of Medicine. The University of Chicago Press, 2018.