When One’s Belief Comes In Play Since the year 1973, abortion became one of the most sensitive topics. Abortion is the voluntary or involuntary removal of a fetus inside the womb, terminating the pregnancy. This termination is safely done within the first couple weeks. Clinics such as Planned Parenthood provide women information and services on abortion, as well as, information about parenting and adoptions. Within these medical clinics, the services provided can be penniless or can be at a affordable price, varying on the type of insurance. Planned Parenthood gives the option of a medical abortion or a surgical abortion, depending on the term of pregnancy. A medical abortion is only effective during the first 49 days. This method of abortion is an intake of the drug, methotrexate followed by misoprostol. The only downside of these drugs is that it takes a while to take effect compared to a surgical abortion. Along with that, it requires often visits to the clinic. On the other hand, a surgical abortion is a fast and accurate choice of termination. This termination includes a vacuum suction, which is a tube inserted into the vagina, then to the cervix and finally to the uterus. Although this is a faster method of terminating a pregnancy, it can be very painful. During the second trimester, abortion is rarely done, but can be done. These types of abortions are of those with medical complications. Within the third trimester, an abortion will only be done if the baby is extremely deformed or if the mother’s health is in danger. Planned Parenthood tries their best to provide these options for anyone who seeks help. Till this day, people still fight against these women rights and there are those who believe that a woman should be able to choose.
Conservatives and liberals have their own thoughts and take on the topic of abortion. On the liberal side of the page, there is a belief a woman should have the option to do whatever she wants with her body. If she wants to keep the baby or not, the choice is simply up to her and only her. With a conservative view, a human life begins at fertilization, therefore, abortion is murder. This is an act of crime and those who do such a crime shall be punished. Conservatives will only allow abortion if it is life threatening to the mother. Both sides have their own flaw and biases, but other sources are unbiased. Liberals and conservatives frame the topic in biased ways. Women should not be denied access to abortion, which should remain a choice and an open option. When it comes to abortion, liberals are the pro-choice followers of our society. Liberals present news titles in a vague way, in other words, the titles are not precise and direct. Within these liberal news articles, the main arguments are pointing out the ignorance and the intolerance of a pro-life believer. Although the arguments are well written and well stated, liberal news articles leave out pathos, an emotional connection between the reader and the audience.
The website, theroot.com provides a very liberal view on the chosen topic, abortion. In an article titled, “Congressman Tells Black Anti-Abortion-Rights Activist, ‘You’re Ignorant’,” the writer Michael Harriot includes sub arguments stating his own opinion. Hence, this makes the article biased and unreliable. In the article, Harriot provides news about a black woman who was stating her pro-life argument, when all of a sudden, a congressman shouts out that she is ignorant. This black woman goes by the name of Ms. Parker. Parker had argued abortion as the “leading cause of death in the black community.” In her reasoning, Parker did not provide any statistical evidence as a backup, making it less believable. Not only did she not provide statistical evidence, her argument was vague, as she did not state clearly where the black community was located at, in a certain state or in the United States overall. An addition to the quote, Parker adds the following argument: “Abortion feeds a narrative that women are victims, that they have no control over their sexual impulses. And the result of this narrative being forced down into our hardest-hit communities—we are seeing now recklessness in sexual activity and marriage has collapsed.” When Parker states sexual activity is out of hand and that marriage has fallen downhill, she sheds off the fact that it is someone’s choice to be sexually active and that marriage collapse has many factors as well. Throughout the article, Michael Harriot slides in sub arguments of his own. Harriot includes the following quotes in his article: “(No, I will not use the GOP marketing phrase“pro-life.” Who’s not for people living?),” “She is kinda ignorant, though.” “First of all, the Dred Scott decision is nothing likeRoe v. Wade. I feel as if most of her talking points came off Infowars or from a bad spoken-word poem about Willie Lynch. Second, that “leading cause of death” statistic is an old myth that people use at their leisure.” All of these quotes are a bridge into a liberal’s mind. These provide evidence of a biased article, which is not a reliable source. While this article clearly shows the writer’s side is pro-choice, other articles make it difficult to tell if it is pro-life or pro-choice. Sometimes it can be mistaken for either one, even though it was meant to be unbiased. More of a liberal view on abortion, a post by the Jezebel Facebook includes a video of House Judiciary Committee Hearing. Because this video was from a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, it makes the source reliable. The video provides evidence that it is pro-choice. In the video, Rep. Pramila Jayapal discusses the issues of allowing abortions, stating that "we as women have the right to determine how we are going to proceed with choices that we make with our own bodies." With this quote, the side of the argument is already revealed, hence, pro-choice. The context of the video is straightforward and given. Along with the argument, using a woman representative also plays a big role in delivering the message to others. It includes the heartfelt feelings of a woman and drags in more emotion to the topic. Furthermore in the video, Jayapal mentions the information about a woman’s health “should be kept between a woman and her doctor." Not only information about a woman’s health, but as well as anyone’s health shall be confidential. To conservatives, the talk of abortion is something they immensely disagree with. To them, abortion is simply murder. After two weeks of fertilization, conservatives believe that act of abortion is a homicide. To them, it is a person, a human being. The only time conservatives believe abortion would be justified was if it was a threat to the mother’s health. Conservatives tend to use the faces of celebrities to present their news. By doing this, their news can easily attract a bigger audience, meaning more attention, more readers. An article posted on thehill.com titled, “GOP bill would ban abortions when heartbeat is detected,” is biased towards the conservative side. It shows it’s favor of pro-life rather than pro-choice. In this article, author Jessie Hellmann discusses the bill that would prevent an abortion from happening. This GOP bill would apparently stop an abortion from happening if a heartbeat was detected. According to multiple sources, a fetus’ heartbeat can be first heard and detected at the 6 week mark of pregnancy. Around this time, some woman do not even know they are pregnant. This bill is simply a sign of pro-life.
In the article, Hellmann provides evidence to the reader that the source is biased towards the conservative. Hellmann states Rep. Steve King authorized “The Heartbeat Act.” This act “would make it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion if the fetus has a ‘detectable’ heartbeat”(Hellmann 1). The Heartbeat Act will prevent millions of babies dying in the womb, but it will not stop the mothers to become neglective of their unwanted child. The fetus was given a chance to live, only to have it taken away months later. Furthermore, Hellmann notes “the bill doesn’t provide exceptions for victims of rape and incest.” Once again, the prevention of abortion will most likely lead to more deaths. That means both the child and the mother. Another example of a source that is biased towards conservatives is the following: On Lifenews.com, an article titled "Abortion Activists Sue to Stop Pregnancy Centers From Performing Ultrasounds of Unborn Babies" by Micaiah Bilger describes how Planned Parenthood is now providing free ultrasound. Study shows that these ultrasounds will encourage the mother to choose life instead of abortion. Due to this, abortion activists had sued pregnancy centers, such as Planned Parenthood to stop showing ultrasounds of unborn babies. This is yet stupid and close minded. The mother at least has the right to choose if she wants to see the baby through an ultrasound.
In the article, Schneiderman "claims that the pro-life pregnancy centers are violating a 2016 law that requires them to inform patients that they are not medical facilities." Schneiderman is a pro-abortion activist and see pregnancy centers as a place where women are convinced to keep their babies. This article is biased towards pro-life using ultrasounds as a fetus’ way to life. Compared to Schneiderman’s claim, the article’s tries to convince the reader that a way to prevent an abortion would be to show the mother a ultrasound of her baby. Unbiased sources are the best sources you can find on the internet. They provide both the liberal and conservative point of view. When it comes to news, the most reliable would be those that are unbiased, but this does not mean that unbiased sources are all real news. Some may be fake as well. These news sources are presented with information and facts, rather than obvious opinions, which is what the liberal and conservative sides are both doing.
The article “Abortion should not be a crime, says doctors’ body” by BBC News, states facts and information, just like a unbiased article would. BBC News gives information to the reader that “Currently in England, Wales and Scotland it is illegal to have a termination without approval from two doctors and could mean a prison term.” The article starts off the by giving facts right away. The quote is the beginning sentence of the article, which provides background to the article topic. Furthermore, it talks about how abortion should not be treated as a crime, but as a medical procedure. This somewhat does lean towards the liberal side, but there is not enough evidence to provide and prove that it is a liberal article. Therefore, it is unbiased. In other words, it does not attack and point fingers to the opposing side and declare it as wrong. The article continues to provide the readers with facts such as in the following quote: “In Northern Ireland, abortions are only allowed if a woman's life is at risk or there is a permanent or serious risk to her physical or mental health.” There is no commentary from the author, but it is simply all facts. Unlike, liberal and conservative news articles, unbiased sources leave out the emotion. They do not connect with the reader as much as a conservative or liberal article would. The disconnection can be the evidence of being neutral.
Another great source of unbiased news would be a news article on npr.org. This article is titled “Supreme Court Takes On Case About Free Speech And Abortion,” which is written by Bill Chappell. In the source, Bill Chappell discusses if a California Law breaks the constitution “by requiring anti-abortion pregnancy centers to inform clients about free or low-cost abortion and contraception services.” Continuing on, Chappell includes the definition of the Reproduction FACT Act. Once again, an unbiased source would provide the readers with information, such as the following, provided by Chappell: “ It requires licensed and covered facilities to give all their clients notice that the state ‘has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services, prenatal care, and abortion, for eligible women.’” There is no sign of favoring either the liberal side or the conservative side. Most unbiased articles may seem as if they are leaning towards one side, but there is not enough evidence to support it. The Reproduction FACT Act does not only provide eligible women to a free or low-cost abortion, but also parental care and family planning services. Chappell stays neutral throughout the whole article, mainly providing facts and information. He does not include side comments and shows any signs of being biased, which clearly shows that the article is a reliable source.
Overlooking our society today, it is unbelievable how it can swing our opinions so quickly. We listen to the news and we assume it is true. We turn a blind eye to reality because we are faced with our own standards and beliefs. Let me ask you a question: is abortion murder or is it a choice? To me, abortion is a choice. Yet some readers may challenge my view by insisting that abortion is murder and life starts at conception, but this does not change my belief. Before stepping out of my comfort zone, I thought abortion was wrong. I grew up in a religious Catholic family believing abortion was murder. Abortion was a crime. Looking back, I thought that way because my of parents beliefs and their parents beliefs and so on. Nowadays, I see abortion as choice. The choice to terminate a pregnancy can be easy or difficult. I respect all the women who have an abortion or not. It is simply their choice. I side with the liberal on the topic of abortion. Comparing both the conservatives and the liberal’s argument, the liberals present more of facts, while the conservatives include a physical figure to present their news. I find the liberals article to be more believing, such as the video of House Judiciary Committee Hearing. This video stuck out to me the most because it includes the perspective a woman dealing with abortion. Not only did this video include more emotion, but it is also straightforward. Personally, I prefer my news to be direct about the message it is trying to deliver. The more a article beats around the bush, the more that I think it is fake. Lastly, comparing the two sides, the liberal is more biased. The conservatives do not include side comments, unlike the liberals, making a disconnection with the reader. The stronger the connection is with the audience or reader, the more believable it will be.
Looking at our society today, we are more open with our opinions. Although there are disagreements among each other, there will be those who have the same opinions. Thus this is similar to the conservatives and the liberals. On the topic of abortion, conservatives and liberals immensely disagree with one another. The conservatives believe abortion is wrong because the fetus is a living being and the choice to live is being taken away from them. On the other side, liberals are all for choice. The mother has the right of choosing what she wants to do with her body. If she wants to have an abortion, then let her have an abortion, but if she doesn’t want to have an abortion then she does not have to. This will only be to some extent. If the baby she is carrying is affecting her health negatively, then the doctor should have a say. Both conservatives and liberals have biased articles and are not perfect. Each have their own style of attracting readers. Abortion should be a choice. This can prevent the depression that the mother feels, along with lessening the child homelessness. A mother wanting to terminate her pregnancy means that she cannot afford the baby herself. The mother can also be unprepared when it comes to having a child. These factors can set in the mother’s mind that she can neglect her child. No one wants to see a homeless child, who was neglected by their mother. Abortion must become a choice. Works Cited “Abortion Activists Sue to Stop Pregnancy Centers From Performing Ultrasounds of Unborn Babies.” LifeNews.com, 3 Nov. 2017, www.lifenews.com/2017/11/01/abortion-activists-sue-to-stop-pregnancy-centers-from-performing-ultrasounds-of-unborn-babies/. “Abortion Should Not Be a Crime, Says Doctors' Body.” BBC News, BBC, 23 Sept. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/health-41371039. Chappell, Bill. “Supreme Court Takes On Case About Free Speech And Abortion.” NPR, NPR, 13 Nov. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/13/563737297/supreme-court-takes-on-case-about-free-speech-and-abortion. Harriot, Michael. “Congressman Tells Black Anti-Abortion-Rights Activist, 'You're Ignorant'.” The Root, Www.theroot.com, 2 Nov. 2017, www.theroot.com/congressman-tells-black-anti-abortion-activist-youre-ig-1820073084. Hellmann, Jessie. “GOP Bill Would Ban Abortions When Heartbeat Is Detected.” TheHill, 1 Nov. 2017, thehill.com/policy/healthcare/358223-republicans-consider-ban-on-abortion-after-heartbeat-is-detected. “Investigation into Planned Parenthood Archives.” House Judiciary Committee, judiciary.house.gov/issue/investigation-into-planned-parenthood/.