In every piece of rhetorical writing the author makes an argument by using the three appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. Most authors will focus on one of these three appeals but must also connect it to the other two as well to strengthen their argument. One article that I used for my ILP 2 and plan on using for my research paper is "Safe and Legal Abortion Is a Human Right" by Tamara Thompson. This article discusses the controversial topic of abortion and argues how it is a fundamental right for every woman. Although Thompson uses pathos and ethos in her article, she focuses mostly on logic. In her article, Tamara Thompson uses logos to appeal to her audience by providing data and statistics on the heavily debated topic of abortion. This effectively gives readers an accurate perspective on the issue, as they can respond to reliable information rather than merely emotion alone. 

Tamara Thompson's article informs the audience about the details regarding abortion in not only the United States, but internationally as well. The article's central argument is that women should be able to have an abortion, that it is their fundamental right to have this opportunity. This argument is made explicitly and is exemplified by Thompson outlining her article by breaking it down into different categories. Her overall argument is broken down into a women's right to life, health, and reproductive self-determination. She goes on to say how safe abortion protects women and that denying women an abortion is a form of gender discrimination. All of these different categories come together to strengthen her overall argument that abortion is a fundamental human right. 

Thompson uses a significant amount of evidence and data to support her argument. For example, instead of saying that there was many unintended pregnancies she says, "In 2008, an estimated 86 million women had unintended pregnancies" (Thompson). She then backs that statistic up by listing possible factors for these unintended pregnancies. These factors include: woman's health, relationships, economic resources, and availability of proper medical care. By appealing to logic, Thompson is strengthening her argument as well as elaborating on unplanned pregnancies. The author then branches off from this one point and states that of these 87 million pregnancies about 46 million end up in abortion (Thompson). These facts put her argument into perspective. The audience can see how prevalent abortion is, as more than half of women who have an unintended pregnancy end up having an abortion. Thompson uses this point to transition into discussing why the government should support abortion. 

Another specific example of Thompson using logos in her article is when she discusses the women's rights to the benefits of scientific progress. She talks about the effects of medical versus surgical abortion. As a nursing student I have not heard about this so I found it interesting. Medical abortion is a safer alternative to surgical abortion that is effective, low-cost, and has significantly reduced morality rates. Thompson backs up this claim that medical abortion is better by stating, "The most common regimen calls for an oral dose of Mifepristone, followed by a dose of Misoprostol up to 48 hours later. This regimen, which can be initiated as soon as pregnancy is confirmed, is approximately 95% effective" (Thompson). This gives the audience a proven percentage to go with the claim, thus making her argument more logical and realistic.  

Although Thompson primarily uses logos, she also uses all three appeals in tandem. Here is an excerpt from her article that demonstrates this: "According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 21.6 million women had unsafe abortions in 2008. These unsafe abortions were responsible for the deaths of nearly 47,000 women. The incidence of unsafe abortion is closely associated with high maternal mortality rates" (Thompson). This segment demonstrates the use of ethos by using the World Health Organization to establish credibility (this would be a situated ethos). Thompson then uses logos in this by providing statistics on the amount of unsafe abortions and consequently, how many of those unsafe abortions ended up in deaths. Finally, she continues by using pathos to appeal to people's emotions by talking about how many deaths occur due to unsafe abortions, leading readers to feel sympathy for those women affected. On the other hand, Thompson also uses pathos and ethos not in conjunction with logos. An example of this is when Thompson discusses a women's right to life. She states, "Several United Nations (UN) human rights bodies have framed maternal deaths due to unsafe abortion as a violation of women's right to life" (Thompson). The author is using ethos by citing a credible source, United Nations, an organization that so many people are familiar with. Now it is a credible source backing up this information, rather than just the author herself. A specific example of pathos would be when the author discusses a women's right to health. She taps into pathos by stating " ...  appropriate measures to authorize abortion "in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the fetus" (Thompson). This is pathos as the author is showing her audience specific examples where a woman feels an abortion is necessary, and under these circumstances the readers feel sympathy for the woman in question. Thompson also perfectly uses kairos as now is the opportune moment to be writing an article on abortion. It is currently a very controversial issue in the United States. It is being discussed along with Planned Parenthood, debating what the regulations and rules concerning this topic should be.

By analyzing Tamara Thompson's article "Safe and Legal Abortion Is a Human Right," we see that authors often employ one or all three appeals, ethos, logos, and pathos, in tandem to create and support a strong argument. If Thompson had not used logos in her article, it would have been simply an opinionated paper with no strong evidence backing up her claims that abortion is a fundamental right. Statistics and data strengthened this paper and provided a realistic perspective on the matter. Her use of logos has led to her audience being properly educated on this highly controversial topic. Perhaps, by writing this article Thompson's audience will be swayed into taking action, working towards pro-abortion laws as well as improving the social image of abortions. 

