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Why or why not? Defend your answer?

You're going to have to use your imagination to answer this question. Hemingway leaves the story with a cliffhanger ending: the couple is waiting for the train, and the woman says, "I'm fine."

You need to decide what you think she will do. In order to make that decision, you'll need to judge the story based on the era in which it is set, not by what is possible in our own time. Keep in mind these things:

• the social mores of the era (just after WWII)
• the social and economic challenges faced by single parents (you can bet he won't marry her)
• the legality of abortions in that era

I hope this helps. Your teacher has given you this assignment to exercise your critical thinking skills. No matter which side you take--for or against her having an abortion--you can't go wrong as long as you back yourself up with some good reasons why you feel that way.

Good luck!

     I believe the woman did NOT ultimately decide to have an abortion because of Hemingway's diction. He makes it clear that the woman is hesitant about the procedure. She actually wants to keep the baby. This is evident when she says, "...once they take it away, you never get it back." She has doubts about losing her child and the possibility of ever having another one. And at the end she says, "I feel fine. There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine," indicating that she doesn't see the baby as a problem, a burden. She decides she wants to be pregnant so there's nothing wrong with her.

     Although Hemingway leaves it up to the reader's own imagination, I felt that she would not gt the abortion after their discussion and her change of heart.

In reply to #2: The text were published in 1927, so the era must´ve been between the two world wars.. 

Hemingway did sort of leave this story for you to make up the decision on your own.  The fact that the man keeps repeating that it is a "simple" operation means that he does not understand the emotional experience that is tied to it.  She does.  Although this does seem like a casual conversation, like soemthing that they had discussed many times before, she still does have time to discuss that side with him.  I bet that if they did keep the baby there is a chance that the man will not remain with her because he seems to be in control during the whole scene.  Meaning that he travels around more and this seems like a relationship that is longer than what he is probably used to. 

      It's really up for you to decide, but I think that when he gets up and moves the bags at the end of the story it is signifying that he has changed his mind.  They were going on a train to go to a larger city, where they could find someone to perform an abortion, and by moving the bags I felt that he had decided not to go in the originally intended direction.  Why would he need to move the bags?  Everything written here was written for a reason, especially using the style that Hemingway chose to use.