Dear President,

I, as many of my peers from across the country are, am writing a letter to you about a topic that I care very deeply about. Abortion has been at the forefront of many of the presidential debates and is on everyone's mind, whether it be them wanting it completely outlawed, legal at all stages of pregnancy, or somewhere in the middle. I believe that women should be able to choose what they do with their own bodies, and that the government should not be able to place overly restrictive laws against abortion. The supreme court case Roe v. Wade stated just that, it said that the government cannot place overly restrictive laws against abortion because it is unconstitutional and violates the woman's privacy. As president I hope that you carefully appoint the next supreme court justice very carefully so that the Roe v. Wade case does not get overturned.

An astounding 63% of people in our country agree that the Roe v. Wade case should not be overturned. Only three in ten people believe the case should be overturned. Now, you may be thinking that it’s just a bunch of hormonal women not wanting to accept the consequences of sex but as surveys conducted by David Masci- a senior research fellow for the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, he is also the Ira C. Lupu, F. Elwood, and Eleanor Davis Professor of Law Emeritus at George Washington University in Washington, DC- state that there is really no gender gap in whom opposes the reversal. 64% of women and 63% of men stating that they oppose the reversal there is no reasoning behind said statement.

Overturning the decision will result in terrible things for women across the country. This court decision is the only thing standing in the way of overly restrictive abortion laws. Restrictive laws will not keep abortions from happening, they will only make it illegal and dangerous. An astonishing 21.6 million women obtain unsafe abortions each year due to immense restrictions in their countries and about 13% of all maternal deaths are attributed to unsafe abortions. These statistics demonstrate that restrictive laws will not help our country, they will only hurt it.

Another question arisen is should the fetus be protected legally? Who has more rights, the woman deciding what to do with her own body or the fetus that cannot live without her? If you ask me i would have to say that the woman has more rights and the fetus does not have rights until it no longer needs the mother's womb to survive. In other words until the baby can survive on its own, the woman makes any and all decisions, even the decision to terminate the pregnancy.

There are varying perspectives on this topic, I am aware of this. I can see the viewpoints of each side. I obviously agree most with the category pro-choice, however the pro-life and moderate perspectives have valid points. Pro-Life supporters feel that abortion is immoral and consider it to be murder. They believe the fetus has rights from the moment of conception . Moderate people feel that abortion can be justified and that it should not be completely legal but shouldn't be illegal either.

As president I hope that you will take all of this into consideration when appointing the new justice who will replace Justice Scalia. The new justice needs to keep the court balanced and keep in mind that women should have the right to decide what they do with their own bodies.

Sincerely, 

Blake Fleming