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Samantha Glandon
Sara Barski
English 121

Responding to Ellen Goodman’s “Out of the Picture on the Abortion Ban”

Ellen Goodman wrote an article “Out of the Picture on the Abortion Ban.” She focuses on: a picture of Bush signing the ban among men, the fact that he doesn’t think that young women aren’t conscious of this debate, and that the ban makes it seem like women can’t make moral decisions.
In her article she is frustrated by a picture of George Bush signing a partial birth abortion ban among men. Since the issue is mainly about women she doesn’t understand why there are no women in this picture. What gives them the right to decide what a woman can do with her own body? She believes that women should have the choice whether they can have an abortion or not. She feels that there are exceptions where abortion is acceptable and that President Bush should respect a women’s decision to have an abortion for those occasions.
The picture included with the article by Goodman, shows George Bush signing the abortion ban with six men standing around him smiling. “What’s wrong with this picture? The legislators had indeed erased women.” (Goodman p. 256) There are no women in this picture. I can understand why Goodman would have such a problem with this. A woman has the baby in her. A woman has the right to keep that baby if she wants it. A woman can choose what she wants to do with her body. Yet it seems like women have nothing to do with this ban based on the photo.
Goodman says most people will say that young women don’t recognize the abortion debate. “They can’t believe it will ever be illegal again.” (Goodman p. 257) She basically tells us that the younger generation thinks it’s a new time and abortion was always legal since they have been alive, why would it change? I don’t agree with this completely. I have had friends that have had abortions and they haven’t taken that right for...