Dear President,

We need to chat about this impending doom that’s been in the back of every woman’s mind. The statements and beliefs that unavoidable circumstances might, somehow, be a woman’s fault. The chatter that a woman could be punished for being raped, for having a miscarriage, for making the impossible decision to let go the idea of a child. Is this what we worked so hard for to have waiting for us in our future?

President, I’ll assume you know our history and our amendments. You know the basic history that in 1848, women began seeking equal rights in women’s suffrage; they just wanted a voice in our democracy. However, it took 72 years until the 19th amendment was finally ratified in 1920. Today, in the age of social media, there has been an exponential amount of social change in a short amount of time. A common amendment we hear about is the Ninth Amendment: the amendment that was added to protect citizen’s unspecified rights. Such as, women have a right to their bodies. Do you really want to take that right away and wait another 70 years until a woman feels safe in her own skin?

The government, simply, should not have the right to tell an individual, a woman, what to do with their body. Have it be a tattoo or a controversial abortion, the individual has the right to make that choice for themselves.

I understand the counterclaim on the topic of abortion. For many killing a developing bundle of cells is considered inhumane, and that lifecycle begins when a sperm enters an egg. I understand the gut wrenching feeling against an abortion, and I agree, an abortion should not take place “as late as one or two or three days prior to birth” as was stated in the presidential debate.

However, the bundle of cells, the beginning stages of the lifecycle, is medically called a zygote. “Considering such evidence, some scientists have speculated that if you factor in fertilized eggs [zygotes] that don't implant along with pregnancies that end in miscarriage, around 70-75% of conceptions end up miscarrying” (https://www.verywell.com/making-sense-of-miscarriage- statistics-2371721). These zygotes are technically living cells, but the developmental system found some flaw in the cell divisions and naturally decided it was best to abort the zygote and try again. Additionally, if the zygote survives the developmental rigger and becomes an embryo, the developing baby still has a 15- 20% chance of miscarriage. And when that embryo becomes a fetus, well, there are about 23,600 stillborn babies each year in the United States (http://www.marchofdimes.org/complications/stillbirth. aspx). None of these terminations have anything to do with the woman’s choice. These are simply facts to show how natural it is to lose an unborn baby. How could you argue that a natural, biological process is inhumane?

It should never be the woman’s fault for losing a pregnancy, and it should never be her fault for deciding that the best course of action is to not have a baby. Women have fought through so much in the past 168 years, the right to her body and the controversial decisions that come with it, is her right. Healthcare decisions should remain between her and her doctor. The government has no justification to take that right away.

President, I thank you for taking your time to hear my voice. This topic is obviously very important to me, so I beg for some peace of mind.

Nora