We Do Abortions Here Critical Analysis

590 Words3 Pages
The topic of abortion has been a controversial issue that has led to continual questioning whether women should still possess the legal right to have an abortion or to revoke their privilege. The justifying causes for legalizing abortion can be argued ad nauseum. In today’s modern society, abortion has become a gateway for unexpected pregnancies that are caused by many underlying reasons. In “We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Story,” Sallie Tisdale applies powerful imagery, internal dialogue, and pathos in the form of specific anecdotes to cogently explain her experiences as a nurse working in an abortion clinic. “An eighteen-year-old woman pregnant for the fourth time... [who] has been so hungry for her drug that she has taken to using the loose skin of her upper arms; her elbows are already a permanent ruin of bruises.”(Tisdale 650) From the beginning of Tisdale’s essay you get a sense of the weight of the factors that lead to the choice of having an abortion. Tisdale makes it clear there is little to doubt about the implications of this women’s suitability to her responsibilities. Throughout her essay, Tisdale depicts to several anecdotes about her experiences with different clients. They show the many backgrounds from which women come for abortions, and are indicated to conjure sympathy in the reader for these women so that they can fully understand her feelings of compassion towards them. It is a “sweet brutality we practice here, a stark and loving dispassion.” Rather than profoundly delineate the cruelty of abortion, Tisdale clearly describes the absence of emotion in her work. The reader sees that in order to carry out the “operation”, employees must alter their conscious state. This omission of sentiment provokes a powerful emotion in the reader as they accept that the already brutal act is augmented by the merciless way in which it is conveyed.
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