Hannah Hecht's Blog

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Murdock’s comments last week received quite a lot of attention from people on all sides of the political spectrum (myself included). However, this article looks at the problem from a much deeper perspective than the traditional “pro-choice,” versus “against abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life,” versus “against all abortion” perspectives. The author, David Frumm, opens up the article by questioning the implications of a system that people like Murdock support. The government can’t (and shouldn’t be able to) force women into involuntary childbearing and leave her to deal with the cost of birthing and possibly raising a child that results from rape. He goes on to examine abortion rates in other wealthy nations and discovers that abortion rates are much lower in countries with a lesser disparity of wealth. If people have the economic means and government support it takes to raise a child, they are much less likely to have an abortion. I think that all people ought to read this article before they make the decision of whether they are pro-life or pro-choice, because it brings in another whole dimension to the discussion. The author suggests that instead of worrying about abortion legislation, we ought to get to the root of the problem by discussing the implications of the vast economic disparity in our country.

I think that this article was incredibly well-written and it used sufficient facts to support its claims. It seems as if many of the different problems in the United States, from education reform to abortion may have their solutions in the reduction of poverty. This is a perspective that many people overlook and I think that the author was right in bringing up this different facet of the issue.

For me, opinion pieces like this are much more interesting than just “state the facts” journalism. While the article that I used last week talked about what Murdock said, this takes it a step further with true analysis that people can use in making decisions. Both types of journalism are important, but I find this type of piece much more interesting and informative.