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Carlie Miranda

Professor Collins

ENGL 1301

28 November 2017

Banning Abortion

The Banning Abortion advertisement created in 2013, was established to raise

awareness about the dangers of banning abortion. The ad states that banning it could lead to

unsafe or even deadly, home procedures. This advertisement also states that most unintended

pregnancies are the main cause of abortions. The ad targets women that are pregnant or women

that use contraception. According to ourbodiesourselves.org,before the supreme courts

landmark Roe v. Wade discussion that legalized abortion in 1973, some well-trained doctors

risked fines, imprisonment, and even the loss of their medical licenses to perform the procedure.

Logos, Pathos, Ethos, and Symbolism in the Banning Abortion advertisement demonstrates

that banning abortions endangers women's health. In the United States, abortion was widely

practiced before about 1880, by which time most states had banned it except to save the life of

the woman. A backlash was formed by the anti-abortion legislation due to the growth of

abortions. Women were taking advantage of the procedure and using it as a birth control. This

legislature wanted to put effort to control women and confine them to a traditional childbearing

role.

Logos is created in the advertisement to show different kinds of facts about abortion. One

of the facts shown states that an estimate of 222 million women in the world have an unmet need

for modern contraception. The ad also mentions that 86% of abortions take place where most of
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the abortion laws are highly restrictive. These facts were used in the ad to help people understand

how dangerous banning abortion could be. Located on the bottom right of the ad is a map of the

world that shows the percentage of abortions that are unsafe. In South America, and most of

Africa has 75% of unsafe abortions. Europe has about 50% and North America has less than

10% of unsafe abortions. Most of these unsafe abortions are caused because it is illegal in most

places, yet it does not prevent these women from performing the procedure themselves. It also

states that 47,000 women die every year due to complications of unsafe abortions, while millions

of these women are severely injured.

Pathos is established in the ad to make the audience feel shocked by giving them

information that most people would not know. People who read the ad might be against abortion

at all costs, but when reading all of the facts, they were surprised that making abortion illegal is

even more harmful because it does not stop these women from performing this procedure another

way. It is a persuasion for pro-life. The ad wants both men and women who are against abortion

to change how they feel and legalize it all around the world. The creator of the ad wanted to

make sure the audience fully understood the possibilities that could happen if abortion was

illegal. It states, making abortion illegal does not prevent women from obtaining against it,

instead, these women perform it themselves or find someone not qualified to do it.

Ethos is used in the advertisement to establish the author/creators credibility. According

to guttmacher.org, the Guttmacher Institute is used as a primary source for policy analysis and

research on abortion. Guttmachers data are much more comprehensive than state and

government sources. The Institutes work examines the incidence of abortion, access to barriers to

obtain services, womens decision to terminate a pregnancy, the characteristics of women who

have had abortions, and the conditions the women are in to obtain them. The Institute was
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founded in 1968 as the Center for Family Planning Program Development. The United States

Congress was taking its first step towards developing an international population assistance

program.

The author of the Banning Abortion ad uses symbolism by emphasizing the important

information. For example, using different colors is powerful because it can determine the mood.

According to color-wheel-pro.com, red symbolizes energy, war, danger, and power. Orange is

associated with joy and sunshine. Yellow is the color of sunshine, happiness, and intellect. It

produces a warming effect. Green represents nature, symbolizing fertility, harmony, and growth.

Blue is for loyalty, trust, wisdom, and intelligence. White is associated with light, while black is

associated with power, elegance, mystery, evil, and death. The background of the ad is blue to

show trust. Some of the bold font is in bright and bold orange, used to represent the importance

of that specific piece of information. Using symbolism in ads helps the audience determine the

mood of it and also shows what is most and least important.

The Banning Abortion campaign was created to inform people about the dangers of

making abortion illegal. Logos is created in the ad to show different facts about abortion. Pathos

is established in the ad to make the audience feel shocked by giving them information that most

people would not know. Ethos is used to establish the creators credibility. Symbolism is

demonstrated by emphasizing the more important information. The message that was being

given was successful to some people. This ad can not change everyones perspective on abortion.

Some people are stuck on making abortion illegal everywhere, while others were moved by the

ad and changed the way they looked at it. The ad was successful in providing multiple factual

statistics.

Work Citation
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Abortion. Guttmacher Institute, 1 Oct. 2017, www.guttmacher.org/united-states/abortion.

Abortion. Our Bodies Ourselves, 2017, www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-

topics/abortion/.

Color Wheel Pro - See Color Theory in Action. Color Wheel Pro: See Color Theory in
Action!, 2002, color-wheel-pro.com/.