Dear Next President,

To begin, I want to congratulate you on winning the highest position in the land. As president, I know you will be faced with many tough decisions and have the opportunity to change the course of this nation for decades to come; you will be nominating at least one Supreme Court justice and have the ability to make the court either liberal or conservative. The person that you nominate to the Supreme Court has the ability to protect our Second Amendment rights, the rights of the unborn, and the right to freely practice our religion; or take away the liberties that many of us believe are crucial to keeping our country free and safe. I know that you are going to hear many different opinions on these issues, but I would like to take a moment of your time to discuss the issue that I believe is the most pressing concern facing our nation today: abortion.

As a libertarian, I generally support giving people the right to make their own decisions. I do not like when the government controls how citizens live their lives, because this country was founded of freedom and liberty. However, I believe that abortion is an exception, because it affects a human who does not have a voice. Abortion is not just about the woman, it is about the unborn baby who can not control what happens to their body. I understand that women who become pregnant through rape or incest have a huge emotional burden that they must deal with and the baby can be a reminder of a traumatic experience in their life. However, why are we punishing the baby? Abortion is like robbery: it takes life, the most precious gift ever given, away from an innocent human being. Although there are many times when a woman can not financially, emotionally or physically take care of the child, there is no reason to abort the baby. In these cases, the child should be given the opportunity to have a life and be adopted by parents who desperately want a child. There are countless couples who are unable to conceive children would do anything to have a child. These children who are aborted have lost an opportunity to be in a loving and caring home. The baby did not do anything wrong. The baby did not choose to be put in this situation. The baby has no say. Since abortion has been legalized, over 44 million (44,000,000) babies have been killed. To put that in perspective, the most deadly war in American history was the Civil War, with 498,332 deaths (on both sides). That means, for every 1 person killed in the Civil War, there have been almost 100 babies killed by abortion. (http://www.htmlbible.com/abortstats.htm)

We claim that these unborn children do not have a right to life because they are not human. My question is, when do they become a human? When they are born? When they are at a certain developmental stage? Why is it that we do not consider an unborn child a human when it comes to abortion, but a criminal who kills a pregnant woman can be charged with double manslaughter, in some states, because the mother and her child died? (http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/fetal-homicide-state-laws.aspx)

I know that many feminists are pro-choice because they believe that abortion empowers women by allowing them to make their own decisions about their bodies. However, I would like to argue that being pro-life is feminist because you are protecting the rights of a female who is not yet born. The goal of feminism is to make women equal to men in all aspects of life and give women more opportunities to defy society’s expectations and follow their dreams. If we allow abortion, how are we giving the unborn female child the ability to be equal to men when we are denying her the right to life? I believe that it is important to have equality between genders, but how can we do that when we are denying these children the right to life?

My question for you as president, is what will you do about abortion. I know that you will have to answer many tough questions during your presidency and will hear many different viewpoints. However, I plead with you to make abortion one of your top concerns because the abortion laws in this country have the ability to change this nation for better or worse. I know you have children and grandchildren of your own, and I want you to imagine what it would be like if they never got the chance to live. Imagine if they never got to see the sunshine, feel the loving touch of a parent, and experience true love. When we allow abortion, we prevent humans from having these experiences because it is more convenient to end their life than fight for it. I hope that this letter was impactful and caused you to take a closer look at your position on abortion. Thank you for your time.

Sarah