Dear Next President:

According to a 2011 announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18% of all pregnancies end in abortion. This number has considerably dropped from the 33% it had previously been. The abortions most women undergo are safe, but more illegal abortions will take place if abortion is outlawed; putting thousands of women’s lives at risk. Every woman has the constitutional right to decide what happens to her body, and it should not be taken from her. For these reasons and many more, abortion should remain legal.

Most abortions are extremely safe. Only 13% of maternal deaths are caused by faulty abortions. This number could be raised if illegal abortions take place, but will likely lower if women have access to safe abortion clinics. There is only a .05% chance of having problems in a first trimester abortion. However, if abortions are banned, women will be forced to undergo illegal abortions, possibly endangering their lives. Women who are forbidden to undergo a safe abortion may have to resort to self-conducted painful and life-threatening procedures. To prevent all of this from happening, abortion should remain legal in every state.

Women have the right to decide what happens to their bodies. Men’s health is not nearly as regulated as women’s health. Making abortion illegal would be adding another regulation to women’s health, broadening the gap of gender equality. Extensive regulations on what a woman can and cannot do to her body, including abortion, should not be in place. Whether a woman would like to keep the baby or have an abortion; that is her choice and it should be respected- both by the government and other people.

Lucy Buckby, a 28 year old woman, was told she had a 50% chance of dying while giving birth to her son Jayden due to a rare heart disease called idiopathic pulmonary hypertension disease. She was diagnosed with this during her pregnancy. This heart disease caused her to make the choice to have an abortion. That abortion potentially saved her life, and had it been outlawed, Lucy, among many other women, could be dead right now. As Lucy said, “If it wasn't for Jayden, my two older sons could have been left without their mum.” No families should be left without their mothers due to a death while giving birth because they did not did not have the option to abort.

Abortion should be legal. It is not something that most women want to undergo. But when necessary, it can save a mother’s life. And if abortion is legal, less women will undergo illegal procedures, which can be life-threatening. Women already have enough regulations on their health, and they should be able to choose what happens to their bodies; other people should not shouldn’t be making that decision for them. After all, “Women who have abortions do so because they value life and because they take very seriously the myriad responsibilities that come not just with birth, but with nurturing a human being.” -Charlotte Taft

Sincerely,

Claire