Sexual Responsibility: A Woman's Struggle

Everyday a woman you know is wondering if she has become pregnant. This is a common worry for most women, and one that will never be completely abolished. In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants”, Ernest Hemingway approaches the topic of abortion with great subtlety. He never once mentions the word “abortion” or “pregnancy”, but his story fluidly illustrates the indecision and tension between two young people. The American man is firm in his statement that having an abortion is “perfectly simple”, while the girl whom we can presume is his girlfriend is much more pensive about the situation. Today women in the United States are lucky to have the option to get an abortion if they choose to do so, but there is still the argument that many men make about whether the father should have a say in what happens to his unborn child. Since it is a woman's body and she is the one making all of the decisions, does this mean she is the only one responsible for dealing with the repercussions of her actions? Should a man worry if he has gotten somebody pregnant? If it is a woman's right to be able to decide what to do with the fetus, is it the responsibility of the man to make sure she doesn't end up needing an abortion in the first place? It is easy for a man to say that there is nothing to an abortion, but for a woman, an abortion means having something ripped away from her. It isn't just physically draining, but the hormonal changes and emotions that go along with it are excruciating. I am fully in support of a woman's right to choose, but I feel it is extremely important that men completely understand all aspects of sex and it's consequences. It is every sexually active persons' responsibility to be educated about how to de...

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...ible for their own health, and not to risk the health of others for their own primitive desires.

Works Cited

The Abortion Access Project. "The Impact of Illegal Abortion." Our Bodies Our Selves. June 2003. Web. .

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Hemingway, Ernest. "Hill Like White Elephants." Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. By John Schilb. [S.l.]: Bedford St Martins, 2011. Print.