Examples of Affectations in the World Today Essays

The issue of abortion rights holds hands with other issues important to women, many of them morally important. The issue incited many women's advocates to emerge. One such advocate is Zelda Kingoff Nordlinger who "was a schoolteacher and mother of four when she read "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan" in 1963 (Robertson & Mckelway, 2009, p. 1). She became a feminist on the spot and in 1968, posted a notice "at the Richmond YWCA to see whether other women felt as she did about women's rights" (Robertson & Mckelway, p. 1). Along with the women who responded, she formed "Women's Rights of Richmond, which later became the Richmond chapter of the National Organization for Women" (NOW) (Robertson & Mckelway, p. 1). The group was responsible for ending segregation of employment ads in the local paper, "lobbied the General Assembly to make rape trials less intimidating for victims" and fought for abortions rights that were illegal in her home state of Virginia  "except when the mother's life was at risk" (Robertson & Mckelway, p. 1). The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion through the Roe v. Wade case in 1973. (Robertson & Mckelway, 2009, p. 1). Nordlinger was a true crusader who worked hard for the rights of women at a time when women's rights were not only unpopular, but also stifled.
     The influence of the 1960's work to make abortions safe and legal in America extended to other continents as well. In Victoria Australia, under recommendations of the Victorian Law Reform Commission on decriminalizing abortion, three options for modernizing abortion laws, were offered to replace the current "common law ruling which says it is only legal if it protects the health of the woman" (Abortion Report, 2009, p. 1). New options include giving a woman's doctor the authority to determine health risk, giving the woman authority to make that determination herself "for an abortion up to 24 weeks gestation," with doctors deciding on late-term abortions, and the third option would "give a woman the power to choose an abortion at any stage of pregnancy" (Abortion Report, 2009, p. 1). Not surprisingly, woman's rights groups prefer the third model. Women are simply tired of politicians deciding the fate of their bodies, regardless of the reasons for terminations, and many women believe that the matter is of a private nature, and should not be criminalized. "A woman's right to choose the spacing and timing of her family has been internationally recognized as a human right since the 1960s yet in Victoria, Austrailia, abortion is still considered a crime" (Abortion Report, 2009, p. 1).

References
Neuhaus, R. J. (2009). The pro-life movement as the politics of the 1960s. First Things,(189), 67-70. Retrieved June 16, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1622565301).
Petroni, S., & Skuster, P. (2008). The Exportation of Ideology: Reproductive Health and Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy. Human Rights, 35(1), 9-12. Retrieved June 16, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1588001151).
Robertson, E., & Mckelway, B. (2009). Zelda K. Nordlinger, feminist activist, dies: Richmonder inspired in 1960s fought for women's rights and abortion rights. McClatchy - Tribune Business News, 1.Retrieved June 16, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 1449269511).
Vic: Abortion report reignites debate. (2009). AAP General News Wire,1. Retrieved June 16, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1486253981).

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