Rhetorical Analysis 22
Rhetorical Analysis 22
Rhetorical Analysis 22
Mollie Hartness
December 2, 2021
Baldwin
ENGL1010
Rhetorical Analysis
Currently the United States Supreme Court is under pressure to overturn a womans right
to having an abortion. Roe v. Wade (1972) was a landmark decision made by the Supreme Court
Abortion is a fairly common procedure with 1 in 4 woman receving this operation a year. The
surgical process when preformed in a safe, sterile environment has a success rate of over 99%.
What will be the consequences if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade? Perhaps
unregulated abortion will rise, women will regretfully put up the baby up for adoption, or the
abortion. Usafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal death in the United States
holding 13% (Haddad). Some of the most common forms of an usafe abortion are inflicting
internal or external damage to the cervix, consuming toxic fluids or inciting infections(Planned
Parenthood). Throughout the world 5 million women are hospitalized each year in relation to
unsafe abortion. As safe, legal abortions begin to decline unsafe underground abortions begin to
climb. According to the World Health Organization, “Every 8 minutes a woman in a developing
nation will die of complications arising from an unsafe abortion.” (Haddad). This could very well
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not be an accurate calculation due to the fact that the mothers are most likely preforming these
procedures so much will go undocumented. Even safe abortions can carry risks depending on the
heath of the baby, mother and the credibility of the doctor. According to Unnecessary Maternal
Morality, “The leading complications abortion-related are hemorrage and sepsis.” (Haddad).
Because sepsis and gastrointestinal bleeding are often due to related causes hemorrhaging and
sepsis are most likely caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen. By crimalizing abortion
women are left with very few options that are unrelated to self harm.
Many who don’t believe that abortion is an option offer adoption as the natural
alternative. Childbirth has very serious medical and emotional risks and could put the mother at a
high risk of death. The foster care system is broken in many ways. According to Olivia Paige
“More than 390,000 children and teens are in foster care, more than 100,000 of which are
waiting to be adopted. Around 50,000 are placed up for adoption each year.”(Reneau). Based on
these numbers that would mean that over 25.6% of children and teens in foster care are waiting
to be adopted while only 12.8% are actually put up for adoption each year. 20% of children in
foster care become homeless the minute they are out of the system. There is a very low chance
these children will ever graduate and around 25% will suffer from PTSD(Reneau). A life is not
The average cost of raising a child in the United States is 284,570 USD (Lino). You have
to take into account that most women who are seeking an abortion are single mothers, who are
commonly known to be under the poverty line. 37.2 million US citizens are below the poverty
line as of 2020(Lino). This number would substantially rise if abortion were to be criminalized.
Women would be forced into giving birth and many into keeping the child. Maternal death would
go up due to childbirth because most of these woman cannot afford to go to a proper medical
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facility with a qualified staff to give birth. Raising a child is expensive, not to mention physically
and emotionally draining. According to the cost of raising a child in the United States, “The
largest expense is housing” (Lino). If you are living in a less wealthy community there is a
chance your house will not be big enough to have a child safely in. The estimated cost of raising
a child in the United States does not include a college tuition, which could easily add on another
20 thousand dollars(Lino). Raising a child is hard and expensive and not everyone has the
If the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade the effects would be detrimental. Not
only would we be stripping away a womans constitutional right to chose, we would be putting
them into harms way. You can believe what you would like for yourself but you have no right to
push those beliefs onto others. Roe v. Wade protects women and we would be taking that away.
Restricting access to abortion will not reduce the number of abortions. Abortions will always be
around. Overturning Roe v Wade could put legal, safe abortions out of reach for women ages
15-49(Planned Parenthood). Before Roe v. Wade illegal underground abortions made up one-
sixth of all pregnancy related deaths in the United States, and these statistics are only the
reported cases. Abortion is a very common procedure. In face, 1 out of 4 women will have an
abortion during their lifetime. If Roe v. Wade were repealed by the Supreme Court unregulated
abortion will rise, women will regretfully put up the baby up for adoption or the woman will
keep the baby lacking proper financial means. For generations women have held the right to
decide when to or when to not have a child, and make their own personal medical decisions. It is
not up to the law the senate or the legislatures to make these decisions for woman.
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Works Cited
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709326/.
Lino, Posted by Mark, et al. “The Cost of Raising a Child.” USDA, 18 Feb. 2020,
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-child.
Liptak, Adam. “Supreme Court to Hear Abortion Case Challenging Roe v. Wade.” The
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/us/politics/supreme-court-roe-wade.html.
Parenthood, Planned. “Roe v. Wade: The Constitutional Right to Access Safe, Legal
https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/roe-v-wade.
Reneau, Annie. “A Woman Who Grew up in Foster Care Explains Why the 'Adoption
https://www.upworthy.com/a-woman-who-grew-up-in-foster-care-explains-why-t
he-adoption-not-abortion-argument-doesn-t-fly.
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