In "Motherhood: Who Needs It?", the author, Betty Rollin intends to weaken ideas that she considers unhealthy, and she intends to make herself appear more trustworthy or reliable than writers of the past who supported those ideas. She achieves that through the use of rhetorical questions to make the reader reflect on the situation, the use vivid examples to allow the audience to understand more on the ideas Rollin has, and, finally, the use of quotes from trusted professionals to support her claim and make her point more definitive. 

The use of rhetorical questions can be for many reasons, including, keeping the reader’s attention, making the reader reflect on something, and making one’s thesis clearer. In Betty Rollin’s essay, this is exactly why she used the rhetorical questions by stating, “How can birth-control programs really be effective as long as the concept of glorious motherhood remains unchanged?” Here, Rollin asks herself and slightly addresses the reader about a concept that should be changed and how it hinders progress to reduce motherhood. Through the use of that question, the author asks us, the audience, about why we think about the topic. Afterwards, she keeps talking about what the reason and answer of the question is.

From questions to things that we can relate to, Rollin uses these things in order to keep her audience’s attention on what might have been a long and arduous thing to read about and listen to. She states, “Originally, it was the word of God that got the ball rolling with "Be fruitful and multiply," a practical suggestion, since the only people around then were Adam and Eve… but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children. . . ," I Timothy, 2:14-15), and somewhat dirty because of menstruation.” In this paragraph, Betty Rollin uses religious text and references to make sure that she keeps her audience’s trust, because Christianity was still a major religion at the time of the essay.

Finally, the author uses quotes from professionals in the field in order to support her claims. She states, “"Women don't need to be mothers any more than they need spaghetti," says Dr. Richard Rabkin, a New York psychiatrist. "But if you're in a world where everyone is eating spaghetti, thinking they need it and want it, you will think so too. Romance has really contaminated science. So-called instincts have to do with stimulation. They are not things that well up inside of you."” She also makes sure that her sources are all trusted, through the quotes of doctors, which every single one of the people in the essay is. Of course, doctors are always very trusted and they earned their PhD through hard work. Because of these trusted sources, the audience is inclined to trust Rollin more.

In conclusion, Betty Rollin intends to weaken ideas that she considers unhealthy, and she intends to make herself appear more trustworthy or reliable than writers of the past who supported those ideas. She asks rhetorical questions to keep the reader in check and too keep the audience’s attention. She also provides examples related to Christianity to spread her influence and also uses quotes from trusted professionals to keep some skeptics at bay.