In his essay, “What I Saw at the Abortion,” Dr. Richard Selzer writes about his experience witnessing an abortion for the first time. Selzers article persuade readers from the side of pro-life point of view by using very powerful technique – without includes anything that standing against pro-choice or effusively agreeing pro-life. His writing has neither fair nor biased in this article because it simply expresses how he witnessed a procedure of the pro-choice operation and let the readers feel how he had felt- a very powerful persuasive.
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Although, Selzer’s writing style is rubbing with a sandpaper on the reader’s mind at the beginning, his assertive tone and interesting language choosing in the article leads reader to the end without needing much of rhetorical tools. But he does use a rhetorical statement when he writes, “…is tugged, like a fishing line nibbled by a sunfish” to visualize how the needle in the woman’s belly trembles. Even though this article needed more technical terms than as it is, Selzer minimizes those and gets the reader’s attention. When he uses the technical or biological terms, he explains what those are at once. For example he writes, “…prostaglandin- a substance found normally in the body.”(3) or “… outpourings of disease-phlegm, pus, vomitus,” (1) makes easy to understand and stay focus on article without needing of flipping pages of dictionary.
Selzer makes his article easy to understanding. However, sometime he gives his readers to think what his expression is and that makes readers dissolve in his stand point. The statement, “We are not six, I think. I think we are seven”(2) gives rise to readers to think where the seventh person came from, then realize that the baby inside the womb is not just a fetus but it is another living human being. Sometime he unknowingly pushes the readers in the place of his character’s feeling as one would take its own: “…it is not pain the she feels. It is more a recognition that the deed is being done.” (1). Selzer knows like a wizard, what would be floating around on the reader’s head during the story goes. He shows that he knows what readers are thinking by, “I know, I know. The thing is normally done at sixteen weeks.” and explains the reason.
He does not say that he stands on the pro-life viewpoint directly. But he indirectly states he is a pro-life in the middle of the article, where everyone in the operation room wants the jerked “needle where it is. Six do” then he count-off himself, “No, five do.”(2) Over all in his article, he is describing that he has witnessed a scene of murdering a helpless unborn baby who was defending for its life -as much as he or she could-inside the womb until “effort away.”(3) His emphasis in the introduction of the article, that he is a surgeon who have seen undesirable scene on daily basic, reinforces how that scene is so much painful for a person to watch. Abortion is termination of pregnancy by accidentally or a woman makes the decision to end by means of surgical procedure as states by Selzer.
Abortion has been a social controversy since the procedure was invented, and has arisen since 1973 when the government legalized and over 3.5 million legal abortions have been reported in according with CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Communities are constantly debating over the pro-life or pro-choice and how many weeks of pregnancy is not to have the procedure preformed. A person believes in pro-life would say abortion is a murder because the moment of conception, the fetus is alive. On the other hand, a pro-choice person would feel that decision to abort pregnancy is solely to mothers and the government has no right to intervene. And a fetus doesn’t become real human being until it is physically delivered from a mother’s womb. Abortion is one of the most controversial topics of all times and yet, is still in the gray zone.
In early societies before legalizing the abortion, unwanted children were often abandoned or even killed after they were born; or seeking back alley abortions which are usually located in an unhealthy area and done by unlicensed operators. Many of women died from infection and incompetent operator. We all know that abortion is demeans the value of human life in social and religion point of view, but what all the consequences would happened if the unwanted child to bring into the world?
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It is probably for the society to let the unwanted pregnancy to abort than have them be brought up poor and neglected or abused. That would not only for the child and mother to suffer throughout their life but also for the society. “A child who is neglected or abused are higher probability to get in to crime, drug addiction, lifelong government aid recipients, etc. (Masserli).” Do we want the child to left in that kind of miserable life? Do we want to add such burden to our over loaded society? Some people might say, “If the mother cannot raise her child, she could be giving up the child for adoption.” Giving up the child for adoption makes tremendous emotional effect, much more than aborts the baby inside the womb, to the mother for the rest of her life.
We all make mistakes in our life, especially in teenage life. But sometime, one mistake can cause a whole life living with a big scar across the face. With lack of sex education or may be with peer pressures to have sex at an early age, could drain down the great life plan for a teenage girl. We shouldn’t penalize someone for life for one mistake by holding pro-life agenda without justification. A blogger/ poet, Sandra Kay expresses how much emotionally and psychologically effects to be a pregnant teenager comparing with her own experience in her article A Pro-Choice Perspective, she writes, “I can tell you-and I am not guessing, but I know-that without access to legal abortions, suicides will increase and women will resort to dangerous, life-threatening, self-inflicted abortions.”(Kay)
Although many people say a woman has to make ultimately her own decision whether to choose pro-choice or pro-life, when the situation arises, they should carefully consider both points of view to reduce the impact of regret in the future. Pregnancy is very difficult time for many people. Some are planned; most are unintentional, thus leaving the mother frustrated with a decision to make. The decision is a matter of life and death. If you think having abortion is murder, then letting suicides of pregnant woman will make DOUBLE murder!
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