Madison Rio

Final Reflection

English 2010

Grant Bangerter

I chose to write about abortion almost immediately as it was announced

we would be choosing a social issue to center all our assignments around for the
semester. Abortion is one of the most talked about social issues currently around
the world alongside issues like war, immigration, suicide, alcohol, racism, and
healthcare. All these issues matter to me, but abortion is at the top of the list
currently because almost daily I see news stories and political influences
discussing the idea of making it illegal to have an abortion. I believe it is your
human right to choose what is best for you and your life, just like I believe it is
every woman's right to choose what's best for their bodies and lives. My
perspective has always been the same since I have been taught my whole life
that one of the beauties of living in America is that you have freedom, rights, and
the opportunity to make your own choices. It’s sad that there are people out there
threatening to take that privilege away. My perspective remained the same
throughout the whole semester as I have always been Pro-Choice. Although
researching allowed me to read personal stories, gain knowledge and
understanding of the Pro-Life side of things and I think that softened my opinion
some on how the other side feels. Planned Parenthood was one of the main
sources I used this semester as they’re always being talked about as a place that
performs abortions although they offer a wide variety of other healthcare services
there. On their website they provide their yearly numbers for services performed,
healthcare patients, etc. which allows you to see how beneficial and real they are
to people. Especially to those who may be without insurance and need general
health care or even emergency issues such as abortion, plan b, and pregnancy
assistance. Although I didn’t necessarily use them as actual sources for my
assignments, watching people’s personal experiences and stories of their
abortions on YouTube and reading about them from RealAbortions.com helped
me see the reality of each side of the abortion debate.

I chose to use different modes of delivery for all of my assignments this

semester because I myself am a visual person, so it is hard for me to just read
 something with multiple pages and hundreds of words and actually understand
what it is I’m reading. For instance, The Persuasion Effect project I chose to do a
multimedia position so I included pictures with information and facts under them
on why a woman should have the right to choose when it comes to abortions. I
highlighted the different reasons a woman might consider or choose to have an
abortion, each side of the abortion debate and how and why majority hold the
stance they do. I wrote a memoir as one of my earlier assignments telling the
true story of my mom at a young age of 17 years old being pushed to have an
abortion by medical professionals because she was battling cancer at the same
time. In the memoir I talked about how she put her own life at risk to carry out her
pregnancy of my older brother and I chose to do so because I think it can put a
situation and face to some of the stories you hear. It makes it personal and gave
the topic of abortion, as well as my mother narrative.
I also did a profile of a place versus a person for the Profile Draft
assignment. When it comes to abortion there are many politicians, public figures
and people out there voicing their opinion and concerns on the matter, but no
one really stuck out to me of importance. So instead I chose to profile a place
that I know receives a lot of support as well as hate for the part they play in
abortions. I made a timeline and profiled Planned Parenthood since they’ve been
around the for the entirety of abortions being illegal, becoming legal and then talk
of becoming illegal again. I did research on how they first became PP, all that
they’ve gone through to become the organization they are today and to remain in
business, as well as all of the various services they offer since I often hear
people talking about how all they do is provide abortions. It was an interesting
assignment for me because it gave a lot of background information for my overall
issue which is abortion and although they aren’t directly related to abortions fully,
they have been around since the very beginning. The founder Margaret Sanger
fought so hard for PP and rights to abortions that she even served jail time for it.
Alongside the essay type format with inclusion of photos, I also did a PowerPoint
on facts and statistics of abortion. Taking away just the words and adding photos,
different fonts, and modes of delivery helps lighten the severity of the topic while
also educating those reading on the matter.
Throughout the whole semester I chose to go with a position argument
versus a proposal. I don’t really have a solution to the problem of abortions and
the only thing I have to offer is the belief that everyone should have the right to
choose and that is what I based all my work on throughout the semester.

For the revision of my assignments, I chose to take the recommendations of my

peers who offered great insight and constructive feedback on what was good about my
pieces and what needed some work and run with it. While looking over their comments
and thoughts I realized I agreed with many of them and was able to make nice
improvements to my pieces which I believe made them that much better.