Abortion: How Does He Really Feel?

Abortion: How Does He Really Feel?

In the article, “End of the Road” by Rebecca Paley, she raises an interesting point of why Dr. William Rashbaum does what he does as an abortion doctor. This article was published in Mother Jones in the Sep/Oct 2003 issue. The setting of this article is placed around modern times. Even though abortion was made legal about 30 years ago, the thought of whether or not it is right is still an issue. This article takes an in depth look inside the life of an abortionist named Dr. William Rashbaum. The audience Paley is targeting are probably people that are for and have had abortions.

Paley describes Dr.Rashbum as being an unruly, mad, sometimes compassionate, and doing it because it’s his job type of doctor. She says these things because he doesn’t care about what anyone says. Paley interviewed people that know him personally to give credibility of how he really is. She asked a second-trimester abortion provider who trained under Rashbaum what she thought of him. She stated “A person who is more concerned with what people think of him than doing the fight thing wouldn’t last. He cares more about doing the right thing than what people think of his personality.” The main argument that Paley is stating is that Dr.Rashbum feels convicted for what he does but, he is only doing it because it’s his job. He even admits that it is hard to do sometime. She makes sure she incorporated plenty of that in her article. Paley also makes this article a little confusing because she jumps back and forth between sides. She tries to justify him by putting little pieces of information that make him not seem so bad. In the next paragraph or two, she makes it seem that he is so wrong for what he is doing. She doesn’t do this directly, but indirectly. The tone Paley uses is a tone that is upset about abortions, but also making excuses for him. She should pick one side so it wouldn’t be too hard to find her argument.