Sarah Payne
5/2/2015
Social Problems
Daniel Poole
"The Other Side" Reflection Essay
"The Other Side" paper was a persuasive essay on why abortion should be abolished. While this
is not my personal opinion, writing this paper definitely made me revisit why I believe abortion is a
crucial medical procedure. And that this important social issue should have no legislation surrounding it
that takes into effect anything besides science.
The abolishment of abortion is one that is highly revered by many in our country. The argument far and
wide is that life is life at any stage of development, and all life is valuable. While I agree with this
statement, as a society, we impose other "life-valuing" statutes in many different ways that are far more
harmful than abortion. The current crisis with race in this country is a great example. The rioting in
Baltimore right now is the direct result of years of oppression of one group of people, simply based off
the color of their skin. If we rioted over other social issues as much as we do abortion in this country,
we might actually make some headway on the issues of lack of education and inaccessibility to
resources. This could propel change on many fronts, instead of spinning our wheels on semantics.
I can't say that any piece of the research I did on the anti-abortion stance was convincing to me. The
argument that abortion should be abolished because of the possibility of mental health issues is an
argument I cannot get behind. How many other social problems have serious mental health
repercussions? Chronic poverty due to wealth inequality, PTSD as a direct result of domestic violence,
anxiety from being ostracized due to race or ethnicity- all of these carry equal to or greater impact than
the possibility of mental illness from abortion.
Finding sources, whether they were valid or not, was definitely not difficult with this paper. The most
vocal anti-abortion groups have been honing their "facts" and scare tactics for many decades and their
reach is seemingly endless. What struck me as most tragic during this research was the consideration of
what this would look like to a young woman desperately searching for help and answers. If I was a
young teenage girl, in the age of so much information, it would not be hard to imagine mental trauma
just from researching this topic. Couple that possibility with the possibility of a dire need for factual
information if I was actually pregnant and the amount of slanted "facts" out there is sobering.
All of the research surrounding this assignment only strengthened my argument that abortion has
nothing to do with ethics and morals. Ethics and morals of a person are just that- personal. However,
access to quality medical care and safe procedures should be a right, not a privilege. Just as with
prohibition in this country history- when you outlaw something, it does not remove the problem, but
makes it gain traction in a way that is always more detrimental than the original problem.
As a country, we would be wise to critically look at social problems of the past, and consider the options
for the future. If we continue to take positions that polarize issues, always making one side right and
one side wrong, progression will be stalled, if not halted all together. There is wisdom in the grey areas
of life, and enacting change that accounts for all the grey possibilities would hopefully mean
understanding, compassion, and more importantly, options for those seeking assistance for whatever
their case may be.