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MWA 2

Alexa Bailey

ENGL 1120 

                                       Reflective Cover Letter

When it came to this sequence, I learned a lot about how to use different modes of communication and different media to present the points I wanted to make, including using online presentations, brochures and pamphlets, and blogs. I liked being able to use different forms of media to present these points because it can make a world of difference based on who the audience is and what points you want to make to each specific audience. For example, the online presentation may be better suited when it comes to an audience you might not physically have access to as you can upload the video to a website or online resource that gives both the audience and the creator access to the document, you could also use a blog when the audience is older and more tech-savvy. A brochure or pamphlet could be used when you need to get a fair amount of information out in a short amount of time and can be done in passing, not necessarily in a full-on presentation style. 

When it comes to using the Student Learning Outcomes, I feel like I learned to both integrate other positions and perspectives in my writing but I also learned how to state my opposing opinion in a respectful way that shows both sides of the argument. I also used research to support the points I have made in all of the arguments I’ve made with my sequence 2 assignments whether it be the SWA 2.1 or the MWA and that has come a long way from what I knew when doing the first sequence for the course. 

When it came to considering the sources I used, I made sure to see what the goal of the organization was when it came to presenting their points and information. The sources may have been biased in one way or another but not in a way that detracts from the information. I also made sure to use sources that support each other and don’t counteract each other, but in a way that was still suitable for the information given and for the seriousness of my assignment and subject. I also used a conventional medium to present my argument by using a blog and I used the same blog that I previously used for the class. 

I was able to incorporate my research into my writing but I don’t know how effective it was, as I have always struggled to incorporate my research into writing. I also did find a bias when it came to the sources I used but they weren’t biased in a way that counteracted the points I was making or in a way that made my assignment or work any less important. I do believe that my personal experiences and beliefs did guide my research and the questions I asked but I believe that changing the way I researched would not have given me the same results and could have given me inaccurate information. I did not have a change of belief or opinion based on this assignment and the research I did, I do believe that this has just strengthened my opinion and the reasons for my personal beliefs, though again, I am biased when it comes to this topic, as anyone who does have an opinion on it seems to be whether they have positive opinions or negative opinions on the specific topic of healthcare or reproductive care and abortion.

Overall, for my research and the things I have received from doing this assignment, I believe I have learned a lot, though I am still struggling with incorporating my research into my writing and to adequately do so, I believe I need to work a bit harder on learning the techniques on writing research papers and forming the research into a well-done paper that gets my point across and the information across well. I think that this assignment did strengthen my skills in these somewhat, but not as effective as it could have and I do not believe that this is the best my work in this department could have been. I think that this is the most trouble I have faced with any of the assignments we have done in English 1120 throughout the semester based on a lack of knowledge on my part and a lack of information as well. 

Alexa Bailey

ENG 1120 

Abortion Access in the United States

When it comes to abortion access in the United States, while it is a right, there are still many issues with a woman’s access to abortions that can prevent her from receiving adequate healthcare or even an abortion, which can be a life-saving or life-changing operation. These operations can change a woman’s potential life path and the success she may face. There are currently laws even being put into place now and one that is very controversial is the Human Life Protection Act. This is a law that was passed in Alabama in May of 2019, that states that all unborn children are people and also bans abortion at any point during a pregnancy, the only exception to this is a detrimental health anomaly or if the pregnancy is to cause serious health risks to the woman carrying the fetus. Though these are steps in the right direction, the choice to abort should be offered no matter the case and this specific law doesn’t provide an exception to women if they were raped or victims of incest and at that point, the pregnancy would still have to be carried full term and couldn’t be aborted. This law also states that abortion is a felony when performed which is equivalent to rape or murder and those being caught performing abortions can face prison time anywhere from 10 to 99 years. (CNN, Michelle Lou)

When it comes down to the prospect of doctors being jailed for trying to provide patients with safe and adequate abortion services, there are surely going to be consequences. When it comes to access to safe abortions, a lack of safety can have dangerous and even deadly consequences. A statistic we can see parallels with is that there are higher death tolls when it comes to countries that have bans on abortion and this is seemingly due to the fact that women are being forced to take the matter into their own hands and are performing unsafe and harmful procedures on themselves because the laws in these countries are practically forcing them. One example of this is that in Africa, there are laws banning abortion for any reason or with few reasons justifying the laws. When it comes to unsafe abortions in Africa, between 2010 and 2014, 25% of abortions were considered unsafe and in 2012 alone, 7 out of every 1000 women had to be treated for complications and 1.6 million are treated for complications every year. (Sedgh, Gilda)

These statistics, while discussing complications in Africa can be used to look at some of the laws going into effect in the U.S., while also discussing that these issues can also end up affecting people here in New Mexico. Currently, New Mexico has seen a decline in clinics that perform abortions, going from 26 clinics to 20, then down to 9 abortion clinics, and 11 facilities in total that perform abortions. This has caused somewhat of a lack of access to abortion clinics. This could eventually cause maternal death cases, whereas we haven’t seen statistics stating that this may become an issue, with the current laws being put in place in other states, if our state were to adopt similar laws, this could become an issue. It has been noted in the Guttmacher Institute New Mexico State Facts, that some New Mexico residents have been forced to travel for an abortive procedure due to a lack of access here in the state. They also stated “In 2017, some 91% of New Mexico counties had no clinics that provided abortions, and 48% of New Mexico women lived in those counties.”, meaning that 48% of New Mexico women had to travel to receive an abortion, whether they traveled in state or out of state for these procedures. Though there are currently no bans in New Mexico on abortion, under the current administration, as a whole, abortion restrictions are more likely to occur, given that Trump is pro-life, he could start to make these changes, though he did say it comes back to the right of each individual state to decide, these changes have been made, especially when it comes to the reference of the laws being put in place in Alabama and the laws being introduced in Ohio and a few others. 

I believe that these laws are dangerous and the rejection of these laws is absolutely vital to the safety of women in the United States and worldwide. There are many ways to get around these laws, but none of which are particularly safe, or legal when it comes to having to travel out of state or country, and none are affordable either. Not everyone can afford to travel out of state or country, take the time off work to leave and have a safe amount of recovery time based on what procedure is being performed. There are also countless issues with at-home abortions and unsafe abortions being performed as well. 

When it comes to this graph provided by the Guttmacher Institute, the more restrictive the abortion laws in place, the less safe abortion procedures can get and this seems to be a direct correlation to at-home and under the table procedures being done. 

Overall, there seems to be a large correlation to a lack of access to abortions and a death toll and complication rate, no matter where the abortion is being performed and introduction to new laws could influence this. When it comes to our current rights, states are introducing laws that are stripping women of this right and are causing deaths due to different reasons whether it be complications, abuse, or unsafe abortion procedures. 

Work Cited

“Abortion in Africa.” Guttmacher Institute, 22 June 2018, www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/abortion-africa.

“Abortion Rates: Where and Why They're Falling.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/data-mine/articles/2018-03-21/abortion-rates-where-and-why-theyre-falling.

Gould, Skye. “The Number of Abortion Clinics in the US Has Plunged in the Last Decade - Here's How Many Are in Each State.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 10 Feb. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/how-many-abortion-clinics-are-in-america-each-state-2017-2.

Lou, Michelle, and Cnn. “Alabama Doctors Who Perform Abortions Could Face up to 99 Years in Prison -- the Same as Rapists and Murderers.” CNN, CNN, 15 May 2019, web.archive.org/web/20190516062617/https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/15/us/alabama-abortion-law-felony-trnd/index.html.

Sedgh, Gilda et al. “Abortion incidence between 1990 and 2014: global, regional, and subregional levels and trends.” Lancet (London, England) vol. 388,10041 (2016): 258-67. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30380-4

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Abortion and the Ban in Ireland

My topic is abortion and the banning of it and I am doing an analysis because I’m passionate about women’s sexual health, rights and the process of which laws get put into place and are formed. In this analysis, I am going to explain the use of pathos, ethos and logos and The NY Times’ use of these rhetorical devices in this article. 

When it comes to the Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion, one of the main points of the article is that Belfast and Northern Ireland have banned abortions, similar to the laws being set up in Louisiana. Another important main point is that women are traveling outside of the country to have abortions for a variety of reasons because of the laws in place. These women are forced to carry the fetus full term, no matter the conception whether it be rape, incest or even if the fetus could not and would not survive outside of the womb. When it comes to getting caught trying to have an abortion, even if you are pregnant because of one of the previous reasons, women can face life in prison as there doesn’t seem to be an addendum to the law that states otherwise.

The purpose of this article is to inform people of the problems that are occurring in different countries with abortion bans and how this may affect those that are in a place where abortion bans are being put into effect around the country and in other countries. I believe the intended audience are those potentially affected by the abortion ban as well as those who may be in a position to help anyone affected. This also may just be an article that sheds light on the subject as a whole as well and can explain what the women are doing in response to this ban, bringing attention to the illegal abortions as well. Overall that feels like the main purpose of the story. 

Ethos is the use of credibility or trust to influence the reader and allows the source to give the reader confidence in the source they are reading and gives the reader faith in the journal as a whole and leaves little room for a reader to feel they need to question the information or the source. One piece of information in the article that could be pushed when it comes to ethos is the statement that says “activists worry that even if abortion is decriminalized, the anti-abortion movement will become more aggressive” which doesn’t expand on that statement and doesn’t give any back up for the statement, giving me the idea that the New York Times generalized the statement and spoke for a vast amount of women whether this was the truth or not because readers would trust the statement. 

Another statement that could rely on the use of ethos when it comes to the credibility that the New York Times has is the statement “Several women have been prosecuted after police officers have raided their homes or workplaces” which doesn’t give any support for this information. The lack of back up information causes me to question its validity and the source. 

The next thing I want to analyze for this paper is logos which is the use of logic, reasoning or proof, one of the examples being the same as one of the last ones I used, being the statement that claims that many upwards of 10 women have been arrested for seeking out a medically-induced abortion. This specific statement makes a large claim but doesn’t back it up with any form of arrest records, or names, maybe even if for confidentiality reasons, this statement should be backed up. There is no proof of these women being arrested for seeking out an abortion or for any reason and doesn’t give the reader any option to do their own research either. 

The next statement I want to include when it comes to analyzing logos is a statement that does include the use of reasoning is the statement that discusses the other choices for women who are looking to have an abortion, stating that there are fully funded abortion services in England, though not all women can make the trip, citing reasons such as disability, domestic abuse or a lack of childcare. This statement presents the solution to the problem these women face then immediately answers the question of “why is this not valid for everyone?” 

I want to analyze the use of pathos now which is the use of emotion and I have two statements in mind as I do so. The first one being the mention of the abuse women face and one woman in particular because she explained her want for an abortion to a counselor while her husband was present. She believed that this would be safe but once they got home, he beat her with a metal spatula and threatened worse but didn’t follow through as she was pregnant. This is an intense statement and a point of tension for a lot of people, men or women when explaining that someone has been subjected to this type of treatment. I believe that the New York Times uses this to tug at the readers’ heartstrings and to gain sympathy from the readers, even those who don’t agree with abortion.  

Another statement I want to analyze is the statement that includes the fact that women are banned from having abortions, even when it comes to death, rape or even incest. I believe that this statement alone shows that no matter the reasoning, there is a reason to be upset about the fact that a woman can not freely choose to abort no matter the reason, but even those in the most intense and dangerous of situations are stuck with carrying a baby to full term and only then can they take the situation into their own hands by choosing to put the child up for adoption or have to attempt to abort illegally. 

Overall, this piece used ethos, pathos and, logos to intrigue the reader as well as keep their attention on the main point of the article. I believe that overall this is a well written, informative piece by the New York Times, meant to bring attention to those who are unaware of the current struggles women in other countries, and soon our own country will be facing. 

                                               MWA 1 Reflection 

Some general concepts I learned during this sequence was how to write sentences effectively and in a way that makes them less bulky as well as getting to the point more effectively. I also learned how to analyze how sources use pathos, ethos, and logos to influence their readers as well as how to use pathos, ethos, and logos to make an effective argument. 

When it comes to the student learning objectives for this sequence we are meant to learn how to compose effective arguments with different sources of information and we’re meant to use writing o explain our personal beliefs, making effective arguments as we do so. It also taught us to provide relevant and important information only, getting rid of any unnecessary fluff that may not be helpful to the points we want to make as writers. 

When it comes to learning how to analyze arguments, I have learned how to see what rhetorical devices the author is using to either break down their argument or strengthen it effectively and I learned that there are certain aspects you need to have in an effective argument, such as effective and correct sources, correct information and a professional and unbiased tone. The use of images, audio and text can help strengthen an argument as long as they are valid and vital to the argument. They can hinder the argument if they don’t correlate well to the information trying to be pushed and spoken about. For example, if talking about climate change, adding graphs of the amount of CO2 being put in the atmosphere could help you make the claim that CO2 is hindering the health of the planet but if you added a comic style photo of a “sick planet” it may be relevant but not all that professional and can hinder the argument. 

My opinion on the argument that I made is still the same, SWA 2 and MWA 1 didn’t change my viewpoint but did make me feel as though I can talk about it more effectively and in a way that seems more educated than it would have been before these writing assignments. I still believe that women's sexual and reproductive health should not be hindered by the government and that no matter the situation, it should be a woman’s choice to make, not politicians. I did learn more about the topic than I did know though I was already well versed when it comes to the topic overall. 

Publishing my work publically didn’t change my perspective on my perspective because my feelings about the topic are ones I have discussed publicly and this is a view that I would keep myself from discussing as it can affect many people in ways that can be life-threatening and fatal. I know that not everyone is going to agree with my views and they are free to do so, which is just a part of having opinions and if someone disagrees with me after seeing the piece, I wouldn’t take offense to it. The only aspect that changed was that I did want what I said to be accurate when it comes to my writing and feelings as I wanted to give my opinion and thoughts in a well thought out way as well as an effective way. 

The technology didn’t change how I formatted this writing because I have previously used media to publish my writing, even if it isn’t something I’m comfortable with it is something I’m used to. 

I can apply using what I’ve learned in this sequence when I go on into the work field and need to form unbiased and professional opinions as well as professional and clear arguments in my career field. I also know that I can observe the ethos, pathos, and logos in many arguments as well as different pieces of writing now that I have learned how to do so and I can use those to form informed opinions based on what I am viewing whether it be the news, social media or even writing. I can use it to make sure that I am informed and know how the author of a certain piece is trying to inform the audience or even to tell if they may be trying to manipulate an audience in a certain way.

Yeginsu, Ceylan. “Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/world/europe/abortion-northern-ireland-roe.html?searchResultPosition=11.