Abortion is the surgical termination of a pregnancy. How odd that people are able to define something, that is such a controversial issue, so easily. There are hundreds, thousands, and even millions of things to say about abortion. When it comes to abortion, I find myself thinking like a symbolic interactionist. Abortion is a personal social issue and it needs to be seen on a micro level first. Although abortion can also be seen on a macro level, seeing abortion on a micro level lets people see the different symbols of abortion. No social condition creates the same symbol.
If abortion is seen on a macro level, all the myths and stereotypes of abortion seem more realistic. For example, some of those myths and stereotypes being, most abortions are from minorities and most people who have abortions are teen girls. If abortion were seen on a micro level it would be evident that these myths and stereotypes are simply not true. Every abortion that occurs has a story behind it or a reason behind it. Many of us automatically assume that the person who had the abortion is immoral without even knowing the reason for why the abortion took place in the fist place.
And this brings up a series of questions. When is an abortion considered moral or immoral? What should the legal status of abortion be? Should the father have a say if one should have an abortion or not? The answer to these questions are within a persons own mind and how they view this social condition. My Luevano 2 answers to these questions are as follows. I believe that when an abortion is considered moral or immoral all depends on the symbol. For instance, one of my family members had an abortion and I found her decision to have an abortion moral.
The symbol behind my family members abortion is as follows. For the purpose of privacy I will refer to my family member as Kate and her first love as Sam. When Kate was fourteen years old, she met her first love. They both went to the same high school but Sam was two years older than Kate. Sam and Kate went out for the next two months and got closer with each passing date. Sam was one of the popular guys in school and could have any girl he wanted so Kate didnt understand why he was setting his eyes on her. Kate was extremely flattered that Sam even considered going out with her.
So as one of the popular guys in school and being a jock, Sam was used to always getting what he wanted. As Sam and Kate got closer Sam started wanting to get more serious with Kate. He was persistent with moving things to the next level when finally the next level was sex. Kate knew that Sam could have sex with any other girl if she wouldnt have sex with him. So Kate, being in love with Sam and not wanting to lose him, thought it would be the right thing to do to have sex with Sam. So, she did. After, Sam was a lot nicer to Kate and treated her more as his girlfriend than just a friend.
Kate saw how happy Sam was when they would have sex so as long as Sam was happy Kate was happy. About a month later, Kate noticed that she skipped her period. She told her friends about it and they told her to not worry about it. As time passed Kate still didnt get her period so she decided to take a pregnancy test. To her surprise the test came out positive. Kate couldnt believe it so she took another test to confirm. Once Luevano 3 again the results came out positive. Kate was extremely scared and she didnt know what to do so she decided to tell Sam. Sam rejected Kate and the baby and abandoned them both.
At this point Kate had no idea what to do. She knew she couldnt tell her mother so she confided in her friends. Looking at her situation, Kate new that their was no way that she could have a baby so as much as it hurt her, she decided to have an abortion. Luckily for Kate, one does not need parental consent to have an abortion in California, so she went through with the abortion. For the next few months Kate was depressed but she had to hide it as best she could from her mother. To this day Kates mother has no idea that she ever had an abortion. And Kate has no idea that I know about her abortion.
Although I believe it was wrong the way Kate handled the Sam situation, I believe that considering her position in that time of her life, having no money, no boyfriend, no job, not being able to support a child, and not having her mothers approval, it was moral for her to make the decision to have an abortion. I believe that the legal status of abortion should once again depend on the symbol. For example, lets say that a woman is raped and wants to have an abortion. Considering the symbol in this situation, I believe it should be legal for this woman to have an abortion. On the other hand, lets say a married couple have three daughters.
The wife becomes pregnant again and she finds out that she is going to have another girl. The couple doesnt feel like having nor do they want to have another girl so they want to have an abortion. Considering the symbol in this situation, I believe it should be illegal for this woman to have an abortion. Or another example would be if a woman became pregnant and her pregnancy was life threatening. I think it should be legal for her to have an Luevano 4 abortion. What Im basically trying to say with all these examples is that if the symbol is that of an understandable reason for having an abortion then Im all for it.
But if the symbol for having an abortion is selfish or ridiculous then there is no way that it should be legal for this person to have an abortion. Once again whether the father has any say on whether the mother should have an abortion or not all depends on the symbol. For instance, a woman named Anna and a man named Bill are boyfriend and girlfriend. They have been going out for about a year now. They have a healthy relationship and are sexually active. They both have been tested for HIV and always use protection when having sex. On one occasion the condom doesnt work and Anna becomes pregnant.
Now Anna is in no way ready to have a baby. She doesnt want to have a baby at this point in her life. Anna wants to finish her college education and live her young adult life before having children. Bill on the other hand wants nothing more to have a child. He sees having a child as a blessing that you should be thankful for. Although he is in early twenties like Anna he thinks its the perfect time to have a baby. So Anna and Bill finally find out about each others differences. Anna cant believe that Bill wants to have this baby and Bill cant believe that Anna doesnt want to have this baby.
Anna has made up her mind about having an abortion without even talking to Bill about it first. When Bill finds out about Annas decision he becomes furious. He tells Anna that thats his baby too and that he should have a say on the whole abortion decision. Anna tells Bill that its her body and she can do what ever she wants with it. So now Bill and Anna are arguing about what will become of their baby. In this situation I believe that the father has every right to have a say on the abortion. The baby Luevano 5 Anna is carrying inside her is Bills baby too.
Bill has as much right to this decision as Anna does. On the other hand, if Bill and Anna were strangers and Bill raped Anna, then he wouldnt have any right. Anna was forcefully impregnated by Bill so I believe that this gives Anna all the right to have an abortion if she wished to. Abortion, for me, has to be seen as a symbolic interaction. Meaning that every social condition creates its own reality or symbol through communication. Abortion can not be seen or talked about in a macro level, it must be seen or talked about in a micro level first.
Abortion is an on going social issue that will most likely be presenting itself in our society for a long long time, maybe even forever. One to two percent of women who have had an abortion will have another one. Twenty percent of abortions are still back ally abortions and thirty nine percent of women that have back ally abortions become infernal. It is really hard for me to believe that there are one point five million abortions every year and thats only counting the legal abortions. The number one thing that divides moral from immoral when it comes to abortion is the symbol. The symbol basically decides all opinions on abortion.
If the symbol is of a woman with a life threatening pregnancy then people would consider this womans abortion moral. On the other hand, if the symbol is of a woman that just doesnt feel like having a baby and wants to get an abortion then people would consider this womans abortion as immoral. Like I said before it all depends on the symbol. This is why, when it comes to abortion, I find myself thinking like a symbolic interactionist. There are just too many different symbols of abortion to think of it in a macro level. Symbolic interactionists are completely right when talking about abortion, well at least thats my opinion.
