Rhetorical Analysis: The Case Against Abortion By Peter Queenan

For my rhetorical analysis, I evaluated “The Case Against Abortion” by Peter Queenan. This essay was designed to get the general public to question and reevaluate their opinion of abortion. “The Case Against Abortion” was written by Peter Queenan who is a Canadian-South African citizen that was born in 1957 in South Africa and is now currently a resident of Canada. He was raised as a white South African racist during the apartheid era in his home. This essay that he composed was basically about why abortion is not only atrocious but also extremely wrong. In this essay, his main claim was that an unborn child is still a life that has human rights and is not less human than any other child. The argument was aimed mostly towards secular, non-religious …show more content…
It was published on a website called the Blogspot under a category called The Case Essays. In the case essays, they talk about many things, but the essay that I solely focus is about abortion. In this essay, there is a likely intended audience. The audience is the general public of different types of backgrounds. I believe that the author chose this audience because they are the majority and they are not knowledgeable of the content and the facts. This is an enormous problem because the majority of people that are not fully informed cannot make an intelligent decision on this subject because they do not know the whole truth about it. I know that this is the likely intended audience because he specifically said in his article that he was trying to approach and reach the majority of the people which are mostly secular. Another group that might be included in the intended audience is non-religious people because he clearly states that “It’s no use trying to tell someone that God disapproves of abortion if that person does not believe in God.” I believe that this is for an open audience and that there isn 't anyone who is excluded from the audience but he primarily focuses on the non-religious group in his argument. For example, he states “Most of the arguments that you will find against abortion seem to be from a religious point of view and thus have little impact on those who are secular in nature.” …show more content…
This is what makes him credible because he has experienced a similar situation where he has seen discrimination. He sees how abortion is becoming acceptable in the days today and it is like a rerun of what he had experienced when he was younger. His connection to the situation is what makes him credible. What also makes him credible is his character. He has good character because even though he feels shameful about being a racist he can still tell people that he isn 't proud of being it. What also makes him credible e is that he can admit that he was wrong and what he did is wrong, but that 's where the connection comes in on how having an abortion is also wrong. He is showing people that even though people don 't see it, he does because he has walked a similar walk. Some examples of this are when he talks about his childhood and his acceptance of the basic norms of white and blacks being separated. For instance, he states “I was raised as a racist white South African during the apartheid era in that country.” He uses this example to show that he can relate to the discrimination of abortion. Another example he states is “ a passive racist who simply accepted the social norms regarding the separate and disproportionate treatment of the various races by the all-white government.” He uses this to show that because he was a racist he understands the inequality, which is why