"The Over-Medicalization and Corrupted Medicalization of Abortion and its Effect on Women Living in Poverty" by Lois Shepard and Hilary D. Turner
In the article “The Over Medicalization and Corrupted Medicalization of Abortion and its Effect on Women Living in Poverty” written by Louis Shepherd and Hilary Turner, the authors begin by emphasizing that abortion rights have been legal for over 40 years and recently have been receiving more and more restrictions from the government. These restrictions vary from waiting periods between appointments to mandatory ultrasounds with descriptive and gruesome results to banning certain procedures. States nationwide have decided to take matters into their own hands and create laws that ban abortions after a certain amount of weeks. Other laws are aimed to make abortion more difficult to reach by creating new standards for clinics and hospitals. These laws that interfere with women’s rights and health are known as “TRAP laws, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers” (672). These laws can be seen as over-medicalized, meaning that conditions women have are treated medically even though it is a political and cultural belief. The government believes that by making it more difficult to obtain abortions, they are helping the health of women. Corrupted medicalization is when medicine is corrupted by law in ways such as creating laws for physicians to follow just for the government officials ideals. An example of over-medicalization and corrupted medicalization is how physicians are required to show their patient the ultrasounds and go into detail of describing what is displayed, even if the patient is uncomfortable. These laws affect many women in poverty because it is shown that women with low income or in poverty receive these abortions from clinics. By shutting down and limiting where these procedures are done, more women have to travel far distances. Women who are lucky enough to be able to travel can do it easily but women who have no mode of transportation or money to afford these procedures, affects their physical and mental health.
After reading the article from Lois Shepherd and Hilary Turner, it becomes clear that women’s health is in danger because of our government. These people in power have beliefs and assume that women should follow them just because they are in charge. By creating laws that restrict our rights, it shows how we should stand up to change this. Women’s bodies should not be controlled by men and jobs should not be shut down due to laws that prohibit procedures. After reading this, I became more interested in how to help these women in need and by donating to clinics and providing transportation or a place to stay is very important. It is essential to help women around us if we want to see a positive change and impact in the future.
V.H.
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