StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Women's Reproductive Rights - Outline Example

Cite this document
Summary
This paper under the title "Women's Reproductive Rights" focuses on the fact that the right of a woman to make reproductive health decisions is based upon internationally protected rights under the Beijing Platform and Teheran International Conference on Human Rights. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.5% of users find it useful
Womens Reproductive Rights
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Women's Reproductive Rights"

A Ban on Abortion Violates Womens Reproductive Rights Outline Thesis: The right of a woman to make reproductive health decisions is based upon internationally protected rights under the Beijing Platform and Teheran International Conference on Human Rights. Therefore, the continued ban on abortion in various countries poses a direct violation of a womans reproductive rights. I. Introduction A. Basic arguments B. Where does the fetus right to life begin? II. International Conferences Covering Womens Rights A. Teheran International Conference on Human Rights B. Beijing Platform III. Abortion as a Male Conception A. The Male Conspiracy B. Protecting a Womans Rights IV. The Growing Acceptance of Abortion as a Womans Right A. International Laws in Support of Abortion B. The European Court of Human Rights Stand on Abortion V. Conclusion 1 Ever since the case of Roe v. Wade made judicial history in the 1970s, the debate regarding the legality of abortion has only found itself escalating in the moral, social, and legal circles. The question of the right of the fetus to life has always been brought to the center of the argument. Anti-abortionists insisting that the fetus has a right to life just as the mother has a right to live. The opposing side, those who support abortion, argue that since a fetus relies mostly on its mother for sustenance and development over the months prior to its birth, then the life of the fetus does not exist yet and as such, cannot be considered to be a separate life from its mother. Therefore, abortion is a decision that a woman can and must undertake for her own personal or medical reasons. To have laws that ban her right to free herself of the fetus via abortive means violates her rights as a woman and her right to choose. This essay will look into the reasons as to why banning abortion is a violation of womens rights and why those who oppose abortion directly violate the Reproductive Rights of Women. According to Frederica Matthews - Greene, abortion must be opposed because it violates the right of a woman to protect her body. She claims that “That right must begin when her body begins, and it must be hers no matter where she lives — even if she lives in her mother’s womb. The same holds true for her brother.” 1 In this line of thinking, it would appear that the right of a woman to her body ends the moment that she conceives a child. Regardless of whether that conception is expected, wanted, or the product of an accident or a crime. In the minds of anti-abortionists, a woman no longer has a right to her body because of the second resident in the womb, who takes 2 precedence over her own safety and concerns. This is an argument that is flawed in every manner. If the life of the fetus does not begin until the umbilical cord is cut and the first cry comes with its first life giving breath, there is no life to actually consider within the womb as the life of what is within relies solely on the existence of the mother and her ability to sustain a secondary life within. Let us remember that the right of women to have a right to control what happens to their body in all manners sexual and reproductive is a protected right installed by the Teheran International Conference on Human Rights and was further expanded under the Beijing Platform which dictates “ The human rights of women include their right to have control over their body and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health free from coercion, discrimination, and violence.” 2 As an internationally protected human right, it truly makes one beg to wonder as to why abortion is still being prevented in a number of nations when there are already international regulations in place that dictate the legality of abortion based upon a womans right to her body. It is funny how anti-abortionists such as Andrea Dworkin seem to get lost in their own thoughts in trying to defend their stand to the point where she believes that abortion is actually a male sexist plot to simply allow them to have unlimited sex with ; their female partners as pregnancies tend to limit the sexual activity of women. She explains; “The decriminalization of abortion--for that was the political goal--was seen as the final fillip: it would make women absolutely accessible, absolutely "free." The sexual 3 revolution, in order to work, required that abortion be available to women on demand. “3 It is truly quite disconcerting to learn that anti-abortionists can have such a limited, sexist, and unrealistic point of view regarding the real reasons that abortion is a womans right and is a necessary part of female independence. While men are admittedly creatures of fornication, that does not mean that the laws that are recognized by international bodies such as the U.N. governing council, were set into place simply for the pleasure of men. If that were the case then there would not be an increasing support for abortion across various nations and states (in the United States). It is important to stop and for a moment, consider that human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights have acknowledged women need to have access to lawful abortions4 Considering the numerous cases of banned abortions when it was the only way to protect a womans life, one could actually view the continued ban on abortion in other nations as a move towards controlling the freedom and right to life of women. Why must the life of the unborn child, who has yet to take the breath of life, be more of a priority than that of the life of the woman who is already alive and is in distress over a pregnancy that is causing her problems and discomfort? There is a growing movement in support of abortion. The womens rights groups that advocate for the reversal of the anti-abortion rules or laws in various nations have an uphill climb ahead of them. They are faced with an archaic legislative system that seems to need to have a total change of its members to a younger, more forward 4 thinking group of lawmakers before the changes to the laws can be acknowledged and deemed necessary. Indeed, it sometimes seems that what is required in order for women to totally and properly protect their right to reproductive health and other accompanying womens rights, is to wait for the old guard to die out and for the new guard to come in. When it comes to the concept of abortion, it would seem that what is required is a change in the mindset of the people. A change of that magnitude cannot happen overnight. It is a gradual change that occurs with the proper education and enlightenment of women and men alike in terms of the importance of a womans right to reproductive health decisions. This is a decision that a woman can make for herself, without the aid of others because this is a decision that affects only her and changes the direction of her life. Bibliography Dworkin, Andrea. “Right Wing Women”, Abortion (1983): http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/RightWingWomenAbortion.html European Court of Human Rights, “Reproductive Rights”, Access to Lawful Abortion (2015): http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Reproductive_ENG.pdf Matthews - Greene, Frederica. “Abortion: Womens Rights... and Wrongs”. Feminists for Life (2013): http://www.feministsforlife.org/abortion-womens-rights-and-wrongs/ Regmi, Sonali. “Unsafe Abortion: Violations of Womens Right to Reproductive and Sexual Health A Study With Reference to Nepal”. University of Toronto (2001) : https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/15997/1/MQ63091.pdf Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(Women's Reproductive Rights Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words, n.d.)
Women's Reproductive Rights Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1685763-write-a-research-based-argumentative-paper-on-a-topic-of-your-choosing
(Women'S Reproductive Rights Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
Women'S Reproductive Rights Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words. https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1685763-write-a-research-based-argumentative-paper-on-a-topic-of-your-choosing.
“Women'S Reproductive Rights Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1685763-write-a-research-based-argumentative-paper-on-a-topic-of-your-choosing.
  • Cited: 1 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Women's Reproductive Rights

Think Piece 1

Abortion has been the central platform for the women's movement.... Think Piece #1 Author's Name Institutional Affiliation Abstract Crime can be defined as a violation of societal rules of behavior, as stated and expressed by a criminal legal code.... Criminalization refers to the legally binding decision to put a certain form of conduct under the threat of punishment....
4 Pages (1000 words) Term Paper

Changing Family Life and Social Theories

“Why else are women in the family today still struggling to have control their reproductive lives” (Baer, 2002; 36).... Name: Professor: Subject: Date: Changing Family Life and Social Theories A family is a social unit made up of one or more adults and their off-springs who they care for....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Opus Dei and Vatican

Parallelism between the Knights Templars and the Opus Dei was developed because of the attachment of both quasi-independent organizations to the Catholic Church.... Both require a far higher degree of sacrifice from their members than just attending mass on Sunday.... hellip; Such parallelism was featured is Dan Brown's fiction "Da Vinci Code". The Knights Templar or Order of the Temple are the most famous Western Christian military orders formed sometime in 1118 to ensure the safety of the many Christians who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem after its conquest....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Women Rights Denial by Governments and Individuals

This essay describes the modern issue of women's rights denial by governments and individuals.... The researcher focuses mostly on describing the history of feminism, UN Mandate on human and women's rights and current situation in the world surrounding the topic.... On 3 September 1981, 30 days after the twentieth member- State had ratified it, the Convention entered into force - faster than any previous human rights convention had done - thus bringing to a climax United Nations efforts to codify comprehensively international legal standards for women....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Community Care by Families

All these problems are interconnected with each other and in order to smooth their acuteness it is necessary to provide a priority of family policy of the state, and also the maintenance of equal rights of men and women in all the questions of family's vital activity.... hellip; (Davis) Rapid technological and economical progress, together with global changes in society produced a range of factors influencing women's position.... The most significant points that influenced women's positions are as follows: 1....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Reduction and Erosion of Legal Rights

There has been a growing recognition around the world that reproductive rights are fundamental human rights that the government is morally and legally obligated to fulfill, respect, and protect.... The values underscoring these reproductive rights - equality and non-discrimination,… Reproductive health involves two general ideas; the right to reproductive self-determination and the right to reproductive health care These rights are not restricted to the right of the woman to obtain an abortion or choose....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Women's Right for Equality in the USA

The constitutionalization of the rights of groups including minority groups.... Debate on the wages and the rights of Women A.... In the paper “women's Right for Equality in the USA” the author analyzes the effect of World War on the position of Women in the Society.... women's Right for Equality in the USAThesis: It is factual that the law evidently gave more privileges to men, and presented women a small number of formal civil liberties....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Child Interstate Abortion Notification Bill

The author states that the current bill is okay but it needs an amendment to allow for abortion in case the pregnancy is in an advanced stage.... However, some girls may use this as a loophole so necessary precautions should be taken to ensure that the unavailability of the parent is verified… Abortion is legal in most states in America....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us