Abortion Stories, Reproductive Wrongs, and Our Need for Each Other

In 1934, Langston Hughes published the short story “Unashamed Cora,” about a black woman who develops a deep bond with Jessie, the neglected daughter of a wealthy white family. When Jesse becomes pregnant as a teenager, Cora, who has been through the same thing before, can understand better than anyone what Jesse is going through. “There’s nothing wrong with having the baby you want,” she says quietly to the girl’s hysterical mother. “I had it.”

However, unlike Cora, Jesse’s family forces her to have an abortion. It has devastating consequences for Jesse and breaks Cora’s heart. Ultimately, in the presence of Jesse’s many high-society relatives, neighbors, and classmates, this overworked and overlooked servant is the only one able and willing to testify to what Jesse truly desired and lost.

It’s no surprise that Hughes, one of the architects of the Harlem Renaissance, would write such a powerful and haunting story. However, I was a little surprised where I found it. Abortion Stories: Earlier American Literature Roe vs. Wade, A recent Penguin Classic collection of writings on the subject. From possible veiled references in Edgar Allan Poe stories to an impassioned speech to Congress by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, a selection of both fiction and nonfiction shows how the subject has gradually come to light over the years, and the vast differences in how it has been viewed and treated.

In the words of editor Karen Weingarten, the book aims to counter “attacks on abortion” and align abortion rights with civil rights that “must be fought hard to defend, or re-win, now.” Weingarten goes on to write, “We must be able to express this clearly, without embarrassing euphemisms. We must clearly understand that this is a fight to establish the reproductive body as a full human being, worthy of rights, freedoms, and protection, and therefore for democracy itself.” The complexity and diversity of attitudes presented in this book is therefore fascinating, and perhaps even counterintuitive. For every work like Chisholm’s speech advocating the repeal of the abortion ban, there is one or two more that consider the profound emotional, mental, and sometimes physical consequences of abortion.

Some works provide the strongest evidence for this practice, with their moving depictions of the despair of devastated mothers in impoverished or enslaved homes. But other choices show women wincing at the very idea of ​​abortion, and men manipulating their girlfriends and mistresses to eliminate anything that could tarnish their rightful reputations. (Another work I found and was intrigued by in this context was Eugene O’Neill’s one-act play simply titled: abortionBecause I first encountered this in a classroom at a Christian university. )

Moreover, there are hints of regret even from those who are convinced that the child will not fit into their lives. In an excerpt from daughter of the earth According to Agnes Smedley, the passionately independent protagonist Marie feels a “concentrated hatred” for her unborn baby that threatens to crush all her hopes and dreams. She has an abortion and then aborts her second child. But after the first abortion, she looks at her husband and thinks: “He was able to laugh a lot even though my child was taken from my body and now my body and mind are demanding it…”

In his preface, Weingarten admits: strange fruitThe film provocatively depicts why black women choose not to have an abortion. But she takes black poet Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “Mother,” a famous poem that laments “the children she gave birth to but never had,” and argues that “this speaker’s relationship with abortion is more complicated because, while she mourns abortion, she does not condemn those who choose to have it.” Weingarten believes that “this ambiguous and humane position is very rarely expressed in our present moment.” While that may unfortunately be true for many of today’s pro-life leaders, who have very punitive attitudes toward women, for a long time it simply wasn’t true, as this collection of writings proves.

If you can find one overarching theme in such a diverse collection, it’s this: “Abortion does not take place in a vacuum.” Whether born or unborn, the end of a life ripples outward and affects many lives, often in completely unexpected and deeply painful ways. Regardless of what beliefs authors and editors hold about ethics and the necessity of practice, literary efforts dealing with this subject will, if they are honest, reflect this. And to their credit, the authors and editors of this book tend to be very honest.

Classicist Sarah Luden’s new book isn’t very honest Reproductive Fallacies: A Short History of Bad Ideas About Women. Luden is dissatisfied, if not furious, with the way writers of all ages have treated issues of sexuality and reproduction. However, in order to make her case, she frequently has to distort the stories and ideas she is considering from all recognition.

Therefore, if the narrator of Ovid’s poem expresses his anguish over the fact that his mistress has become ill due to an abortion, it must be because he is “self-righteous” and not because he is genuinely concerned. “Sure,” Luden admits, “there’s a sympathetic attitude…but it’s a fact.” rhetorical gesture. They seem designed solely to disarm his modern readers, who will likely be shocked that he would venture so brazenly into such a sensitive subject. ”

Elsewhere in his study, Ludden points out problems with the new marriage model promoted by early Christians. That’s because of the comfortable and stable arrangements that noble Romans had, where husbands had sex with other women and wives didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant all the time, and that “even humble families hired slaves to look after babies (or hire nurses), cook, and clean.” Her attitude throughout this section is offensively classist, implying that the arrangement was inferior because it worked better for poor Christian families without slaves.

in contrast, A story about abortion.” Committed to exploring different perspectives, reproductive mistakes We strive to discover as many obstacles as possible. The celibacy of early monasteries angered Mr. Luden because men could perceive women as “temptable daughters of the great traitor Eve.” But Charles Dickens’s celebration of early marriage and large families in stories like “The Chimes” also offends her, as they lead directly to “the production of factories and mines and cannon fodder.” No matter what era Luden finds himself in, the pro-family mentality, as many of us now call it, will never prevail, as it either denies people joy or binds them to unjust obligations.

In other words, Luden enjoys being a contrarian. However, she is often unable to understand what her point is because she is busy arguing against every moral philosophy and guideline she brings up. forAnd much of it, she says, is quite offensive even by her own standards, let alone the standards of decent society. When the eugenics movement was being discussed, she managed to contort herself until she came up with: “But by a miracle of tact and realism, [Margaret Sanger] He worked hard to emphasize the limits of the family, even by collaborating with the Ku Klux Klan. Nevertheless, she was a heroic advocate of family planning even on her worst days. …”

If there is an argument that requires celebrating women as heroines while simultaneously acknowledging their cooperation with the Klan, it’s time to abandon that argument and start over.

Luden’s consistent principle is that no one else should have a say in a woman’s family planning efforts, up to and including abortion. But to make that point, she ends up rhetorically trampling the rights of others, from ancient Roman slaves to modern-day abortion survivors. (Although she does have some fair criticism of how it’s done.) Janna Jessenone such survivor has been exploited by opportunists for many years, the very existence of such a category of people irritates Luden).

reproductive mistakesof course, with a hyper-individualism deeply woven into the pro-choice ethics. And there are lessons from this, not just for pro-choice people, but for pro-choice people as well. As this ethic steadily and persistently takes over our society, and as Nietzsche’s will to power embraces Christian considerations for “the least of these,” even the modern pro-life movement shows disturbing signs of embracing it, as governments that claim to be the most pro-life in history cut funding to the bone. maternal health, disabled personand almost every family that needs some help caring for their unborn baby. Many of us have mourned children who were aborted after being diagnosed with Down syndrome, and rightly so. Recent high-profile events. But how many of us mourned then? the government threatened to take away What resources can help adults with Down syndrome survive and thrive?

If abortions do not occur, childbirth, childcare, and care for the disabled will also not occur. In Romans 14:7 (NKJV), Paul says, “For we have no man to live to himself, nor man to die to himself.” Throughout our lives, life begins and ends in the womb. we need others and others need us. if Abortion story and reproductive mistakes There is one thing you would like to tell us. That is, human life cannot exist or end without touching the lives of other humans. If we forget that, the world will become a harsher and more dangerous place for everyone.