These policies are crucial because of the prevalence of rape during war and because some of these rapes will lead to unwanted pregnancies. Rape has historically been part of war and is one of the most invasive crimes that can be committed against a person. Whether it is the 200,000 Korean women held as sex slaves during WWII , the 250,000 to 500,000 girls and women that were raped during the Rwandan Genocide or the girls that have been kidnaped and are being used as sex slaves by ISIS , rape has historically been used as a weapon of war. Rape during times of conflict has been used as a way to humiliate, torture, degrade, and to perpetrate fear into communities. Sexualized and gendered violence has been rapidly increasing and is becoming very …show more content…
In fact, every year roughly 22 million women have illegal abortions. Out of those 22 million women, 47,000 lose their lives and approximately 5.2 million are hospitalized annually . Forcing women who have been the victim of rape during times of conflict to carry that pregnancy to term is dangerous in many ways and negatively impacts the mental and physical wellbeing of the victim. Forcing rape survivors to carry out pregnancies to term is punishing them for a crime that was committed against them. Withholding access to safe and legal abortions to these women is forcing them to relive their rape all over again for the world to see . Being forced to carry a pregnancy to term does not only pose mental and emotional risks, but it also threatens the life of the mother as well. Throughout the world ‘“Pregnancy is a leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19, most frequently due to complications of delivery… Adolescents aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth—as are those in their twenties—and very young adolescents’” . Pregnancy at a young age can negatively impact the lives of young girls all over the world. Girls are forced to drop out of school and take care of their children, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and a life of suffering. Taking into account that most of these women live in patriarchal societies (Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Syria etc.) not only do they face extreme emotional and physical pain, but they are also left to deal with the backlash of their families and communities. Looking at the rapes that occurred in the former Yugoslavia during the war, it is clear that there was a stigma towards women who had been raped and
Abortion is a major debate in society today and has been an impassioned topic for decades. At issue is whether or not abortion should be permissible. Generally I support the idea of abortion given specific circumstances. If a woman becomes pregnant due to rape, she has no moral obligation to carry the baby to full term. It is a gross expectation for society to think a woman should give birth to a baby conceived from rape and to take care of the child as her own. In this discussion I will argue that abortion is permissible if the mother was a victim of rape.
“Before the rape I felt good. My life was in order. I was getting ready to get married. Afterward everything changed. I kind of lost who I was as a person…
The more extreme victimization of women occurs through gender violence while in service as a soldier. In the United States, the film The Invisible War recognizes that over one fifth of serving women experienced sexual assault and there is nearly no justice system to combat this. One man had raped several women in the service, but still was able to receive congressional medal of honors for his actions and bravery (The Invisible War). This promotes further gender division by having such limited consequences which sends the message that women are not nearly as important as their male counterparts. Women in the service are not the only ones who are being raped and abused; women were used as “comfort” women in World War II to ease the sexual desires of men which is ultimately a legalized form of sex slavery within the military. This further degrades women by objectifying them as objects that can be traded for security. Women
workers and the position of supervisor is instantly given an incredible amount more power taking
Rape has been going on since the beginning of time. It is a crime that takes place not only in our country, in our world, but even in our military. The first rape crisis center was established in the 1970’s. Now more than ever, many men and women in the military are coming forward after these horrific assaults are forced against them. Unlike past decades, this tragic and vicious crime is being brought to the fore front, and starting to be addressed more than ever. This is a current, and devastating problem that is effecting men and women globally.
No upstanding and sane person would ever sanction mass murder; and yet, by supporting abortion that is just what is happening. Every day 3,238 babies are killed in brutal ways inside the womb through processes such as dilation and curettage, where a loop shaped knife is used to cut the baby into pieces, then its body parts are checked in case any parts remain in the mother ("Abortion"). Even worse, such statistics do not include the abortions that take place due to contraceptives and the “morning after pills”. However, the most horrific aspect of this aside form sickening medical procedures and toxic medicine is the culprits. Parents, the two most important people who are supposed to protect their children, have deserted them and left them vulnerable, sentenced to death.
As one knows, some unwanted pregnancies could often be harmful and distressing for a woman. Women should have the right over their body to choose to sustain the fetus or not. In the past decades, women did not have their freedom of abortion in many countries of the world. There have always been controversies going on about abortion. Each individual has dissimilar views on the legality of abortion. Some people are against abortion for personal religious purposes and beliefs. For those who don’t believe in abortion, it is because they see it as killing a fetus, which is a human being. Others support abortion because they believe in women’s rights. Laws of abortion vary in each country, and abortion is not legal all over the world. It is illegal under any conditions but only permitted to save woman’s life if in countries such as Brazil, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, and Ireland. However, abortion is legal without any restrictions in countries like Canada, Albania, and Italy. It the past decades Abortion was considered as criminal act in Canada. “If an abortion was carried out without such approval, the woman was liable for imprisonment for 2 years, an...
Illegal abortions performed in unsafe conditions contribute to a great number of deaths every year. According to Wendy Wanlund, “In 1930, illegal abortion was the official cause of death for nearly 2,700 women, or 18 percent of childbirth-related deaths recorded that year” (Abortion Debates). In the more than four decades since Roe v. Wade was decided, thousands of American women’s lives have been saved by access to legal abortion care. Furthermore, making abortions illegal would force women to go about terminating their unwanted pregnancies with unsafe procedures. Every year, millions of women in the developing world are treated for complications from unsafe pregnancy termination. These complications can include heavy bleeding, infection and sepsis, as well as more severe conditions, such as lacerations or uterine perforation, that can put a woman 's life at risk. Lack of access to abortion clinics does not result in fewer abortions, it results in unsafe and illegal abortions.
Both men and women fought on the battlefield. Hundreds of women served as nurses, laundresses, cooks and companions to the male soldiers in the Continental Army.6 In addition, there were some that actually engaged in battle. Seeing "no reason to believe that any consideration foreign to the purest patriotism,"7 Deborah Sampson put on men's clothing and called herself Robert Shirtliffe in order to enlist in the Army. "Robert Shirtliffe" fought courageously; "his" company defeated marauding Indians north of Ticonderoga.8 There is also the valiancy of the water carrier Mary Hays, otherwise known as Molly Pitcher, who took up arms after her husband fell.9 As a six-foot tall woman, Nancy Hart was considered an Amazon Warrior. Living in the Georgia frontier, this "War Woman" aimed and, with deadly accuracy, shot British soldiers who invaded the area.10 Mentioned in the beginning of this essay was Margaret Corbin, another woman on the battlefield.
“The sweetly sickening odor of decomposing bodies hung over many parts of Rwanda in July 1994: . . . at Nyarubuye in eastern Rwanda, where the cadaver of a little girl, otherwise intact, had been flattened by passing vehicles to the thinness of cardboard in front of the church steps,” (Deforges 6). The normalcy of horrible images like this one had cast a depressing gloom over Rwanda during the genocide, a time when an extreme divide caused mass killings of Tutsi by the Hutu. Many tactics such as physical assault or hate propaganda are well known and often used during times of war. Sexual assault and rape, however, during times of war is an unspoken secret – it is well known that rape occurs within combat zones and occupied territories, but people tend to ignore, or even worse, not speak of the act. There have been recorded cases of rape and sexual assault in almost every war in human history. Genocidal rape was used as a gendered war tactic in the Rwandan genocide in order to accomplish the Hutu goal of elimination of the Tutsi people in whole, or part.
Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortion with a landmark court ruling in 1973, yet abortion remains one of the most controversial debates due to the myriad of political and moral issues. Somehow, woman still face many of the issues that the roe v wade ruling was supposed to prevent. Carrying an unintended pregnancy to term can be very problematic to a woman’s mental and physical well-being whether it was a rape or not. The magnitude of damage an unwanted pregnancy can be catastrophic to the child as well. Extreme cases, newborns are killed because a woman could not afford an abortion. Most Americans agree that abortion is okay under dire circumstances like rape. There are countless other circumstances in which a pregnancy can be devastating to a woman, but rape is singled out as socially acceptable because on the surface, it appears to be a definitive, black and white reason. Finding a middle ground that allows woman to decide for themselves what constitutes a dire circumstance might be a more realistic and compassionate choice. The option to have tax-funded, safe, legal abortions is choosing to improve the quality of lives that already exist and is a realistic approach to an emotional issue.
Expecting to completely eliminate abortions from the face of the earth by making them illegal and getting rid of the facilities that provide them is an awfully absurd idea due to the fact that abortions will never cease to exist. Induced abortions have taken place all over the world, and “societies have [been struggling with] the issue of abortion for millennia” (Abortion). Within countries where abortions are essentially illegal, many turn to unsafe abortion methods, usually performed by unskilled practitioners (Chapter 5). These procedures are “often unsanitary… and [result] in the death or mutilation of many women” (Abortion). In areas where these services are not attainable, many women are prompted to seek out specialists to assist them in dangerous and surreptitious methods of abortion such as repeated blows to the stomach and the insertion of bizarre objects in the vagina and cervix. However, abortion-related deaths are usually quite rare in developed countries where the service is both legal and accessible. It is estimated...
This affects 57.4% per one thousand girls; furthermore, teens that become pregnant have a substantially higher chance of dropping out and not furthering their education. Abortion is a tool that can be used to benefit the younger women of our country. A tool where young women who were unsafe don’t have to regret it for the rest of their lives and have a child that is unwanted. No child should come into this world unwanted. Though her actions can be deemed not responsible. A mother to realize she is unable to care or provide for the child is the correct thing to do; furthermore, 42 % of women who have an abortion are below the poverty line. Having a child that one cannot afford can lead to a series of negative effects such as unemployment, becoming reliant on public welfare, and falling victim to domestic
Is anyone truly a stranger to nightmares? Has anyone not woken up in a feverish sweat with a racing pulse or pounding heart? Whose eyes have never wildly searched their room for the phantoms of a dream? Now, what if the familiar consolation of learning it was all in your head never came? How do you wake up from a nightmare that is, in fact, a reality? I think I’m getting ahead of myself. What I mean to say is, I was raped, and rape is a nightmare.
On the surface, The Rape of the Lock is a retelling of an episode that caused a feud between two families in the form of an epic. One might believe that in his version, Alexander Pope portrayed the women of the story as shallow, vain little girls, however on a deeper level the women are crucial to the story. Aside from not being as helpless as they appear, each woman possesses a different kind of power that contributes to their character greatly. Rather than being the conceited and shallow figures expected of the time period, the women in The Rape of the Lock posses more power than meets the eye.