Kristin Luker and the Negotiated Order of the United States
In her book, Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy, Kristin Luker participates in the negotiated order of the United States by providing information to the information-gathering portion of the sympathetic process. Luker's investigation of the issue of teenage pregnancy seeks not to provide information on what she perceives to be right or wrong but rather to provide the necessary background for an informed decision to be made.
Consistent with the social-constructionist theoretical perspective, Luker begins her analysis by pointing out that while the objective conditions surrounding teen pregnancy may or may not have changed, the subjective perception of the problem has changed, and in some ways, quite dramatically. Language, especially naming things, has a significant influence on our perspective. It causes us to create categories that dictate what and how we see things (Roy 12). By tracing the changes in the language used to define young/unwed parents and their offspring through various periods in the historical record, Luker demonstrates the shifts in the subjective perception of the issue of teenage pregnancy.
In colonial America, children born out of wedlock were a significant concern not only because the circumstances of their conception were considered a "sin in the eyes of the Church" but also because they often created an economic burden. Consequently, Puritanical society chose words to represent the child and its parents that carried a negative connotation. "Bastard" was the term used to refer to the child born out of wedlock; "illegitimate" was also commonly used. The mother of the child was considered a "fallen woman" and the ...
... middle of paper ...
...hose "excluded from the American Dream" who face few other options (Luker 183).
By gathering information pertaining to the issue of teenage pregnancy, Kristin Luker has played a significant role in the negotiated order of the United States. She has given us a basis for a "new and constructive national dialogue on the subject," and supplied us with the necessary, objective background with which to make an informed decision as to the causes and solutions to the problem of teenage pregnancy in the United States (Wilson).
Bibliography:
Luker, Kristin. Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966
Roy, William G. Making Societies: The Historical Construction of Our World. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press, 2001
Wilson, William Julius. Harvard University. (quote on back jacket of book)
To understand the significant change in the role of the women is to understand its roots. Traditionally, women in colonial America were limited in the roles they played or limited in their "spheres of influence." Women were once seen as only needed to bear children and care for them. Their only role was domestic; related to activities such as cooking and cleaning. A married woman shared her husband's status and often lived with his family. The woman was denied any legal control over her possession, land, money, or even her own children after a divorce. In a sense, she was the possession of her husband after marriage. She "... was a legal incompetent, as children, idiots, and criminals were under English law. As feme covert she was stripped of all property; once married, the clothes on her back, her personal possessions--whether valuable, mutable or merely sentimental--and even her body became her husband's, to direct, to manage, and to use. Once a child was born to the couple, her land, too, came under his control." (Berkin 14)
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. “The Facts of Teen Pregnancy: An Overview.” Teens and Sex.
Puritan times. As a result of their sin, a child is born, whom the mother
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute in the United States, illuminates to the world, “ In 2013, a total of 273,105 babies were born to women aged 15 – 19 years [in the US]” (About Teen Pregnancy). Although the statistic was taken in 2013, the relevance of it, to this day, is monumental. If an individual hears of a teen pregnancy, compared to the past, it would have little to no effect. For example, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathanial Hawthorne in 1850, follows the life of a woman, who happens to be a mother, while she hides herself in shame, withdrawn from society because she has a child. The novel’s views juxtaposed with today’s views on teen pregnancies are substantially different.
Through out the history of the constitution of california there has been a number of attempts to change how abortion in teens is handled. Proposition 4 intends to give the parents the right to know when their unmancipated teens want to get an abortion. some supporters of this proposition argue that it will save lives and money for the state. People against it say is more dangerous to teens because they could be driven to use not regulated clinics and or to run away from home. In this research paper we will go through both points of view, and also the implications of continuing with the current constitution or changing it as the proposition 4 dictates.
John Ruston Pagan’s book, Anne Orthwood’s Bastard, is split into sections describing the different components of sex and law in early Virginia. Pagan describes these components through the story of Anne Orthwood, John Kendall, and their bastard son, Jasper. Anne Orthwood was born an illegitimate child. There was much shame and disgrace for illegitimate children. Although illegitimacy made Anne’s life especially hard, she also faced the same pressures as other members of her generation. Her generation was dealing with shortages of land and labor; increasing prices, rent, and unemployment rates; and declining wages. These struggles caused many people to emigrate from Britain to the Americas.
Over the course of the last century, abortion in the Western hemisphere has become a largely controversial topic that affects every human being. In the United States, at current rates, one in three women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45. The questions surrounding the laws are of moral, social, and medical dilemmas that rely upon the most fundamental principles of ethics and philosophy. At the center of the argument is the not so clear cut lines dictating what life is, or is not, and where a fetus finds itself amongst its meaning. In an effort to answer the question, lawmakers are establishing public policies dictating what a woman may or may not do with regard to her reproductive rights.
“10 Arguments in Favor of Pro-Choice Policy.” Advocates for Youth. N.p., 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. .
The debate of abortion continues to be a controversial problem in society and has been around for many decades. According to Jone Lewis, “In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820’s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy” (1). This indicates that the abortion controversy has been debated far back into American history. Beginning in the 1900’s, legalized abortion became a major controversy. In 1965, all fifty states in the United States banned abortion; however, that was only the beginning of the controversy that still rages today (Lewis 1). After abortion was officially banned in the United States, groups such as the National Abortion Rights Action League worked hard on a plan to once again legalize abortion in the United States (Lewis 1). It wasn’t until 1970 when the case of Roe (for abortion) v. Wade (against abortion) was brought...
Significantly, teenage pregnancy is a social issue that will always be present in Canada. It will always have its health concerns, social issues, and media controversies. Nevertheless, there will always be solutions, where teenagers can be cautioned, and where mothers can have second chances to get the help they need to raise their children. Indeed, teenage pregnancy is not a formula that can be solved with an answer - but it is a cracked path that can only be paved, smoothed, and made better for those that must walk upon it.
In her essay “Abortion, Intimacy, and the Duty to Gestate,” Margaret Olivia Little examines whether it should be permissible for the state to force the intimacy of gestation on a woman against her consent. Little concludes that “mandating gestation against a woman’s consent is itself a harm - a liberty harm” (p. 303). She reaches this conclusion after examining the deficiencies in the current methods used to examine and evaluate the issues of abortion. Their focus on the definition of a “person” and the point in time when the fetus becomes a distinct person entitled to the benefits and protections of the law fails to capture “the subtleties and ambivalences that suffuse the issue” (p. 295). Public debate on the right to life and the right to choose has largely ignored the nature of the relationship between the mother and the fetus through the gestational period and a woman’s right to either accept or decline participation in this relationship.
Although there are still troubles with teenage pregnancy, there are people out there who are putting forth effort to help the social problem. Countless organizations are beginning to show up and attempt in helping these teens. There is a group that started in Austin, Texas called The Tandem Teen Prenatal and Parenting Program. “Tandem has been effective in improving the health and well-being of teenage parents and their children and has more than halved the national subsequent pregnancy rate of 24% among its clients by more then half” (Rosell, Scarborough, Lewis, 2010). Tandem is trying to help in improving the lives of the teen parents who do not have much help from anyone else. “They provide one-on-one prenatal education at appropriate intervals, with the aid of topical packets that include print and video material” (Rosell, Scarborough, Lewis, 2010).
With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the majority of Americans agree that each woman must have the right to make this private choice for herself. Anti-choice proposals to ban abortions for “sex-selection” or “birth-control” are smokescreens designed to shift the focus of the debate away from this issue and trivialize the seriousness with which millions of women make this highly personal decision. Any government restriction on the reasons for which women may obtain legal abortions violates the core of this right and could force all women to publicly justify their reasons for seeking abortion.
Although the rate of teenage pregnancy in the United States has declined greatly within the past few years, it is still an enormous problem that needs to be addressed. These rates are still higher in the 1990's than they were only a decade ago. The United State's teenage birthrate exceeds that of most other industrialized nations, even though American teenagers are no more sexually active than teenagers are in Canada or Europe.
(2003). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary'. Abortion Facts: Teenage Women, Abortion, and the Law. Retrieved from https://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/facts/teenage_women.html Sherwin, S. (2014). Abortion Through a Feminist Ethics Lens.