I've been pondering the use of the word Coercion in terms of a threat to withdraw support if an action is not taken. The word coercion carries a fair bit of emotional loading and sometimes legal consequences but appears to cover a pretty wide range of activities in this discussion.

I hit that source of all knowledge (Wikipedia) it get it's version of the definition

"Coercion /koʊˈɜrʃən/ is the practice of forcing another party to act in an involuntary manner by use of intimidation or threats or some other form of pressure or force, and describes a set of various different similar types of forceful actions that violate the free will of an individual to induce a desired response, usually having a strict choice or option against a person in such a way a victim can't escape, for example: a bully demanding lunch money to a student or the student gets beaten. These actions can include, but are not limited to, extortion, blackmail, torture, and threats to induce favors. In law, coercion is codified as a duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in a way contrary to their own interests. Coercion may involve the actual infliction of physical pain/injury or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat. The threat of further harm may lead to the cooperation or obedience of the person being coerced."

TBC

R0bert

Part 2

The tricky part in all of this is what options does a person have if they don't give into the pressure/suggestion/question someone else brings.

In the case of the use of the word coerced in the article, plenty, it's a question, not a threat either in real terms or in any implied terms.

In the case of the parents threatening to withdraw financial support from a pregnant teen (assuming that the teen is old enough for that to occur without other legal constraints coming into play) the teen will generally in our society have other options, they may be very difficult but I struggle to see that as coercion.

There are a whole bunch of ways people bring pressure to bear to try to get others to make a particular choice, some are not decent and don't reflect my values but I'm not sure coercion is the right word unless there is a threat to harm another.

The misuse of the term looks like more of that approach we see all to often of broadening the meaning of a term to leverage the emotional impact of the term which in the long run harms those to whom it genuinely applies.

Anybody who is genuinely coerced to have an abortion deserves all the help the law can bring.

A reduction of the number of options while options still exist is not coercion.

R0bert

This is a very strange article.

The chain of logic is thus:
Women are presented with the option to have an abortion. Because some women are in difficult circumstances, they may choose to have this abortion. Thus, the option should not be presented to them so bluntly.

This is very poor logic. In follow-up comments, Ms Garrett has indicated that her goal is that women should always have the support they need, thus abortions would not be necessary.

Unfortunately, there will always be difficulties. Life is full of uncertainties. There will never ever be a world where every woman can have the future mapped out safely, and have all the support she needs to raise a child.

Whilst I would agree wholeheartedly for maternity leave policies and other options to aid young parents and provide further support, that is not what the article appears to be advocating for. Instead it takes this very strange route of criticizing the fact that women are presented the option to abort.

Which is very depressing, because to improve the situation facing women, and yes, to provide them with the support the author claims she is advocating for, one must first and foremost respect the women's right to choose what they want. Be it abortion or not.

It is also very weird to focus on the fact that some women are pressured by their parents to have abortion. Surely the guilty party here are the parents, not the people offering abortions.

So if you really want to advocate for more support for women, I would suggest that instead of trying to curtail their ability to make choices for themselves, a more productive approach would be to focus on issues that improve their situation - such as maternity leave, reducing the cost of childcare, reducing employment discrimination for single parents and increasing access to contraception such as the morning after pill.

Debbie Garret,

I agree somewhat that our culture has gone too far into trying to make women into the same individual and free thinking self-maker that many males are seen to be (but are really not this) when we should realize that biology and thousands of years of culture where gender roles ere fixed will take some time to overcome.

But forget this problem for a moment which is sorting itself, and spare a thought for non-western cultures and for how they still treat women and even worse, how the women in these cultures themselves see themselves as not oppressed.

For instance, while we complain that 'my daughter is too young for a kid' or 'how dare that GP mention abortion' another family in a very traditional culture (which is basically everywhere no-west) such as Sri-Lanka or Iraq the pregnant daughter first must be married before pregnant or at least soon after second the girl and family nor anyone in community thinks abortion as an option to consider (as westerners didn't in 19th century) and the pregnant women better not have any "west inspired" dreams of being an individual career women since nobody in her family nor her husband will ever contemplate such madness and instead she will be at home raising kids (more coming) and taking care of husband for eternity.

If by some miracle a women in such a culture managed to grow a mind independent enough to try to escape, the likely result would be that her entire family is shamed by her and so disowns her completely. The same would happen to her had she dare to marry a man not of parents' approval such as a man from a different tribe or even race or religion.'

It is not uncommon in cultures like this to find these disobedient women ending up killed by either the husband, a brother or their father since the male feels the shame the most apparently.

So forget our little issues and problems in our nation