Rhetorical Analysis of “The Dishonesty of the Abortion Debate”
The online article, “The Dishonesty of the Abortion Debate”, by Caitlin Flanagan is an opinion-ed piece that was published by The Atlantic in December 2019. Caitlin Flanagan is an author of two books, Girl Land and To Hell With All That, and is also a contributing writer for The Atlantic. Flanagan’s article deals with the controversial topic of abortion. More specifically, she discusses the rhetorical situation of the history of criminal abortions done by Lysol and the debate on abortion while injecting her own views into the article. Flanagan effectively informs her audience about Lysol abortions and her views on the abortion debate by using rhetorical elements such as purpose, audience, stance, language, tone, font size, and images.
Flanagan’s audience for this article is composed of many different groups. One of the first groups are women. The topic of abortion impacts all women because the debate around it is significant as it deals with the bodies of women and their say on their own bodies. If a woman has an unwanted pregnancy and they can’t raise the child, they would want to abort it. If a law dictates you can’t abort a child, it would be a violation for women’s rights, and it would be unfair for the woman. The second group in Flanagan’s audience is people that are against abortion. The author’s stance in the article is against abortion, and many people who have the same views as her would resonate with her and support her. The third group in the author’s audience is people that are interested in reading about scientific controversies or reading about the history of medical procedures. Flanagan does mention a lot of information about the history of Lysol induced abortions from the 1920s to 1960s. Although there are many audiences and different mindsets, Flanagan does a good job in informing them of the facts and her purpose for writing the article. For example, in the article it states, “The first woman arrived at the hospital in a “hysterical state.” She was 32 years old, her husband was with her, and she was in the midst of an obvious medical crisis… Her husband eventually confessed that they had gone to a doctor for an abortion two days earlier…Two hours after that, she began to breathe in the deep and ragged manner of the dying…” (Flanagan) The author uses facts about the patients to invoke pathos within the audience in order to make them understand her purpose in writing the article. She also recounts the patient’s facts about the wife who died towards the end for the audience to understand her stance.
Flanagan’s tone in the article was neutral when talking about the history, but then it changed to in a personal and emotional tone when she discussed the debate and the women in the scientific reports. When talking about what criminal abortions are and the Lysol abortions, Flanagan’s tone remained informational, and didn’t have any emotion. For example, she states, “Overall mortality for patients who had become septic from botched abortions and were admitted to a hospital was 11 to 22 percent, but for those whose abortions had been induced with soap or Lysol, the mortality rate was reportedly an astounding 50 to 66 percent.”(Flanagan) However, when she talked about the women that were impacted by the women that were sick from the abortions, she became emotional. For example, she states, “… imagine him getting in the car and making the terrible drive back to his house so that he could tell his children that their mother was never coming home again.” (Flanagan) Flanagan talking about the impact of her death on her family showed the shift in her tone. The use of language also impacted the way her tone was in the article. When her tone was informational, her language was formal, because she was introducing facts and statistics to her audience. However, when she talked about the women and he ultrasound of the 12-week-old, her language became informal, and the tone became personal.
Flanagan’s stance in the article is against abortion. She makes this point by stating in her article that the argument against abortion doesn’t require words, it only needs a picture. The picture she’s referring to is an ultrasound of a fetus, which she believes to be a human being that deserves to live. Here she uses pathos to invoke the emotions of her audience in order for them to see her views. In her article however, there are some points where she discusses feminist views. For example, Flanagan talks about doctors prescribing Lysol as birth control. In the article it states, “One woman’s doctor has told her “never to run such careless risks” and prescribed Lysol. Another is told by her doctor that failing to douche with Lysol could “lead to serious consequences.” (Flanagan) She then goes on to talk about how unwanted pregnancies impact the lives of many women. She explains this point by using an advertisement from the 1930s. The advertisement shows a woman with her head down and in the largest font size says, ‘I just can’t face it.” Then underneath the picture there is information about Lysol and using it as a birth control method. This ad mostly impacted women during the 1940s when war was rampant and when the baby boomer era was getting on a roll. She empathized with the women who went through many ups and down before/during/after their pregnancy. She even stated that women should have the right to make choices about their body. Since there’s a shift in her stance, it can be said that she supports women’s rights and women having total control over their bodies, but she finds abortions to be wrong because it’s immoral to kill a human being.
Flanagan’s purpose for writing this article was to inform her audience about the history of criminal abortions by using Lysol and the two different sides of the abortion debate. In order to discuss the history of the abortions, Flanagan used different published medical reports that talked about the different women that had the abortions. While talking about those women, the author used imagery in order to make her audience visualize the cases and the pain that the patients had been going through. She described their age, how long their pregnancy had been, and that each woman had been injected with Lysol in their uterus. She also used imagery to describe the doctor’s sense of smell when they found that there was Lysol in their uterus. In order to discuss the debate on abortion, Flanagan didn’t used facts. She instead used her own opinions, along with her personal experiences on being a woman to talk about the different sides. In the article she presents a picture of a 3D ultrasound of a 12-week fetus and talks about her opinions on aborting that fetus. In the article she states that some people may not consider it living, but Flanagan does. She talks about how the fetus is a girl and how she has already developed fingers, nails, toes. The author reveals her stance in this part of the article, which will be discussed later on, and by doing so she makes a strong case against abortion. However, for the pro-abortion side, she doesn’t really touch upon the facts or even what the pro-abortion side is arguing in society. She insinuates that the argument for the pro side is weak because the argument against abortion doesn’t require words, it only requires a picture (referring to the ultrasound). (Flanagan) However, she does acknowledge the unwanted pregnancies and the pressures a woman has to face during the 60s.
In conclusion, Flanagan has been effective in using rhetoric to explain criminal abortions and the debate that it’s causing. She uses all the elements of rhetoric to establish herself as a credible source, to prove her main points, and to inform the audience on her stance and purpose. I personally, don’t agree with her stance on abortion. I feel that every woman has the right to determine whether they want to birth and raise a child or not. I also feel that the argument she made with the picture is sort of unfair. She uses pathos to say that the 12-week-old fetus is a child and that it’s unfair. For some women, any child is a horrendous act, but others may not see what she sees in that ultrasound. I believe that the topic abortion, especially in recent times, is very important. A lot of conservative states have already banned abortion, violating woman’s rights. Women deserve the choice to choose what they want. They’re not only deciding for the child, they’re deciding for themselves as well.
Works Cited
Flanagan, Caitlin. “The Dishonesty of the Abortion Debate.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 12 Nov. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/the-things-we-cant-face/600769/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2020.
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