Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: Forum

Hangers symbolize the importance of pro-choice

For most people, the hanger represents a simple tool to hang their clothing. But for many women, it has come to represent a brutal action performed in the darkest hour, the hour when they question the very essence of their own lives and life itself.

Most of us cannot even imagine what goes through the minds of these women when forced to make such a powerful choice, but whatever the legal status of abortion, this choice will always exist. Our collective choice as a society is whether we will turn a blind eye to these women who may have no other option but to stick a metal object inside of themselves in order to live the life that they desire, or we will offer them a healthy and safe place, physically and emotionally, to receive an abortion.

Each woman must decide what is right for her situation and ideology. However, a government has no right to force a woman through pregnancy, childbirth and the consequences thereafter: This must be a personal choice. As Northwestern law professor Andrew Koppelman informed students last night, through the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, outlawing abortion can be construed as a form of slavery, in that the government cannot commit law abiding citizens to perform acts against their will.

I hope that as a society, the notion of forcing a woman to do things with her body, treating her as nothing more than a uterus and denying her the moral agency to which every person is entitled, will repulse us in the future, in the same way that we regard the notion of slaves working in fields repulsive. If not, these poor women may have to revert to taking a simple hanger and twisting it into a cruel weapon of force, mutilating their own bodies instead of seeking the support they deserve from society.

- Stella Fayman
Weinberg junior
Co-director of College Feminists


Roe v. Wade inspires to make a difference

Live. Grow. Drink. Beat. Live. An unborn child's will is simple. Every cell in his or her body eagerly awaits the first breath.

As we remember the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, whether it might be by writing, praying, encouraging someone, volunteering or choosing differently, will you give more unborn children a chance to live?

- Jonathan Turner
Second-year industrial engineering and management science graduate student
Member, Students for Life

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