RAB Source Entry 1-Nyazia B

My research question is how does Roe v Wade disproportionately impact black women ? 

This topic interest me because I am a young black woman. Black women have always been at a disadvantage when it comes to the health care system.  When Roe v Wade was overturned it put black women a disadvantage even more because they face overwhelming cost and obstacles when it comes to reproductive healthcare. I witnessed Women protesting and the horrific stories of African American women had to endure due to the health care system failing us and the overturn of Roe v Wade is a prime example of how it has. I know that with Roe v Wade being overturned many women are not able to receive abortions, but the overturn has a disproportionate impact on women of color. I also know that many black women are overlooked and ignored when it comes to healthcare. Black women are the ones four times more likely to receive an abortion but are restricted to receiving a safe one whether they are in a state where it is legal or not because of poverty. I have read articles on how it has become even more difficult for black women to receive reproductive healthcare especially in places where it has now become illegal. I want to find out more stories black women must endure and how they are acting against the overturn of Roe and the systemic racism they’ve endured.

Source Entry #1

Part 1: MLA Citation 

Noor, Poppy. “‘They Forced Me to Carry My Baby to the End’: Women of Color on Being Denied Abortion.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 22 June 2023, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/22/post-roe-abortion-women-of-color.

Part 2: Summary 

In “They forced me to carry my baby to the end’: women of color on being denied abortion,” Poppy Noor report how women specifically women of color have been impacted by roe v wade being overturned. Noor includes personal stories of two women of color Anaya Cook and Samantha Casiano who were denied abortion care and their traumatizing outcomes of our now health system since the overturn of roe v wade. In Coral Springs, Florida Anaya Cook experienced 17 miscarriages prior to her current pregnancy and learned to not get too hopeful this time around. Into her second trimester she felt a wet rush down her leg and had to be taken into the hospital because of her past experiences with pregnancies. Eventually she found out that in the next 48 hours (about 2 days) she would have to deliver a fetus that would not survive and was sent home to deliver on her own because there was a still a heartbeat even with no chance of survival, she was denied due to ban on abortions. In Texas, Samantha Casiano found out her fetus would be born with half a skull and would not survive after birth and could not receive an abortion to terminate the pregnancy and was forced to carry a baby to term leaving her to feel “like a prisoner trapped in her own body. “

Part 3: Reflection 

 I selected this source because it shows the impact the ban on abortion has had on women. This article shows how women in this generation who no longer have access to abortion no matter their situation feels when they no longer have a right to control their own body once they become pregnant and how that right be taken away makes them feel like a prisoner inside of their own body. There are many people in America who see abortion as murder because they are taking the life of a fetus but do not factor in if it is medically necessary or just to consider the position a women are in to even consider abortion as an option like Anaya Cook and Samantha Casiano. Now that abortion is banned people woman who are in similar situations are putting themselves at risk because they can no longer receive a safe abortion and are forced to find other methods to have an abortion. Now in America women are going to continue to feel controlled and angry. This is a tough time to be a woman in America. With no access to safe abortion, we are being put at risk. 

Part 4: Rhetorical Analysis 

This article is a feature piece written by Poppy Noor. The purpose of it is to inform. Her intended audience is the general reading public. The purpose of writing this is to spread information on what has been happening since abortion has become illegal in 24 states. The author appeals to pathos throughout the article by using personal stories and experiences of the women who were affected by not being able to receive an abortion to inform readers but also to make the readers feel sympathetic to what women are now going through now that they have lost a right. The Guardian is a reliable source because it has a global readership, and they are renowned for the paradise papers investigation and other award- winning work. Poppy Noor is an award-winning editor and writer and has become a senior staff writer for the Guardian US focusing on abortion.

Part 5: Notable Quotables 

“Casiano spent the next few weeks feeling like a prisoner trapped in her own body.” (Noor)

“I felt so degraded.” says Casiano. “It’s like they forced me to carry my baby to the end, but when the time came, they were like ‘OK, let’s get this over with.”  (Noor)

“If I saw somebody else going through what I went through, I would be like: ’How are you doing this? Nobody should have to do that.” (Noor)

“When she asked what her options were, her doctor said, ‘You don’t have any. You need to carry this pregnancy to term. They wouldn’t even show her the ultrasound.” (Noor)