Monday, November 06, 2006
Will educating women help?
In the discussion today, we were talking about how the better education of contraceptive options for women in these eastern cultures would lessen the need of abortions, especially late term abortions. I do not think that this would change much because the need for the abortions does not spring from the education of the women; it springs from the conflict of the society and the culture. The culture of Confucianism states that people should strive to have a family, and that this is the highest good. But then the society forces a family to only have one child. This conflict causes the women to initially think that having a family is a good idea, and therefore not worry about getting pregnant. But after the fact, they realize that it will hurt themselves financially and also hurt others. This causes the emotional conflict leading to abortions later in the pregnancy, when the women finally decide to go through with it. In this way, the need for late abortions in most cases does not come from the inaccessibility of contraceptives, but the conflict in a person’s mind between the importance of the society she lives in and the moral beliefs that she holds. If a woman was never pressured to choose the side she did not agree with, then more pregnancies would be carried the full term because a higher ratio of pregnancies would be women that were positive in their decisions to have a child.
# posted by Theresa @ 11:16 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
While I agree with your assertions about the culture of Confucianism, I think that it is wrong to assert that the better education of women wouldn't have a positive impact on the number of pregnancies, and, by corollary, the number of abortions. Also, note that what Dr. Sorensen said in class was not that the better education of contraceptive options for women lessens pregnancies, but rather better educating women across a culture has proven statistical impacts on the number of children that woman has. Education is empowerment. Further, you collude "Confucian" with "Chinese," which is not entirely fair. For one, the Chinese nation officially has no religion; in reality, China is predominantly Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist, with some intermixing of the three. Certainly though, family values are a part of Chinese culture – it's just not as simple as saying "Confucianism states this" and having done with it. Also, I think you degrade the intelligence of women but saying the belief "causes the women to initially think that having a family is a good idea, and therefore not worry about getting pregnant"; I believe the issue is far more complicated than that. I think most women understand that there is a grave emotional component and responsibility to having a child, and that the problem of restrictive law, undereducation, and perhaps less readily available medical facilities and technology (before one know for sure that she is pregnant) all add to the reasons for why late term abortions are an issue in this society. Neither of us has all the facts here about Chinese culture, but it is wrong to decide, carte blanche, what considerations go through a Chinese woman's head when she gets pregnant and later decides on a late term abortion.
Post a Comment
<< Home
