Covey 1

Cassie Covey

Composition II

Professor Perkins

25 June 2020

Rhetorical Analysis

Abortion and its issue of being legal or illegal with today’s day and age. Many of the

young adults in this century no longer are supporting abortion and the laws that go along with it.

This is called decoupling of attitudes which explains why there is more support for same sex

marriage than abortion rights. Although the two used to go hand-in-hand, times have changed

and that is why the traditional opinions and support have changed from the older generation like

the parents of the young adults. Youth support for same-sex marriage shows an expansion for

conservative values than for a reflection of progressive values. Most women who have an

abortion do not speak of the act and remain in the closet. There is many questions that get asked

when the topic of abortion gets brought up and discussed that it should be illegal. One of the

multiple questions is “if a person cares to harm the fetus, why would it help a person to know

that abortion is relly common in pregnancies?” ( "Why Isn't Millennial Support For Abortion

Rights Increasing?", 25 June 2020). The amount of pregnancies that end in abortion is

outrageous because there is no one who truly knows the exact number. There is always an

estimate and a number of people who can guess closely but everyone, pro-life activists and pro-

choice activists, is as well-informed as the person next to them, across from them, and even

behind them.

The author of this article, Megan McArdle, writes in a logical article about abortion and

why it does not get support as much now as did it in the past generations. She also talks about
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how abortion should be illegal and ask some questions that leave people to think about the moral

side of abortion. The main audience that Megan McArdle is trying to get the point of abortion is

not moral and should be illegal in all states is the feminist and the people of the world today.

Those people are the young generations who are in school or even just graduated school and

starting their life as an adult. That would be including the millennials and the gen z generation as

a young adult. The genre is government non fiction because it is written as the events happen and

it is dealing with the government and the law. The view ths author makes and wants others to see

is very clear. She states “it apparently doesn't even occur to her to think that while the harm from

gay marriage is pretty nebulous, the harm from abortion is pretty obvious to everyone” meaning

that no matter what you support, the harm that is caused is obvious and clear that a child is being

killed (“Why Isn't Millennial Support For Abortion Rights Increasing?", 25 June 2020). McArdle

states “her” as she refers to Amanda Hess another author who explores the support changes in

young adults but not only does Amanda become blind sided so do many of others which causes

them to not see the harm with abortion. Some think that because gay marriage has a very unclear

harm if none at all that abortion is the same.

The article's effectiveness is very strong, it states the main points and reasons why the

main points are true. Megan McArdle makes it clear that abortion should be illgeal and provides

evidence and explains why abortion has less support from young adults than the past generations

had. For example, in her article she states, “though young people today are "more educated, more

liberal, and more likely to be religiously unaffiliated" than their parents--all factors traditionally

correlated with support of abortion rights--they are not actually more likely to support abortion”

(Why Isn't Millennial Support For Abortion Rights Increasing?", 25 June 2020). This explains

the reason for the less support to the point and leads to persuade the readers that the article is one
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that talks and explains why many do not support and should not support abrotions. As the reader

continues to read, they come about questions that cause them to second guess their opinion and

view on abortion. This might cause some to even change their view to either side because it

makes the reader and the audience really think about abortion and the harm it does to a fetus.

Works Cited

McArdle, Megan. "Why Isn't Millennial Support For Abortion Rights Increasing?" Atlantic.com, 31

Aug. 2011. Gale OneFile: Contemporary Women's Issues, https://link-gale-

com.library.collin.edu/apps/doc/A266498567/CWI?u=txshracd2497&sid=CWI&xid=9b6ad8c8.

Accessed 25 June 2020.