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 are in need of 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.