Dear Future President,

I am writing to you to voice my concern about a controversial topic in the media today: abortion. The killing of an innocent human being is not only wrong, but unfair and unjust and is depriving that unborn child of life. From the moment of conception that fertilized embryo has become a life. And, like the rest of the population, this baby has the right to life. Why is terminating a pregnancy and killing the child any different from murdering another human being? While many people believe that the ability to have an abortion is a right that is up to the woman, I believe that abortion is morally and religiously wrong, and should be illegal throughout the United States.

Exodus 20:13 states “Thou shalt not kill.” This is the most direct reason one could give in a religious defense of making abortion illegal. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “The fifth commandment (Exodus 20:13) forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance.” Translated, this means that intentionally taking a human life, conspiring with some to take a life or hiring someone to take a life is a grave sin. This does not apply just to a breathing human. This also applies to unborn babies as well. When having an abortion, you consult a doctor to have the procedure done. This is no different than conspiring with someone to commit a murder. In any case of abortion, the mother who chooses to have an abortion and the doctor who does the abortion are both equally guilty of murder in the eyes of God.

There are also moral reasons why abortion should be illegal. The law in America presently is that abortion is legal throughout the country and it is then passed to the state governments to decide if they want stricter laws to be in place in their state. Abortion laws in Texas are thankfully some of the strictest in the country. To have an abortion in Texas, a woman must give a legal and unexpired document of proof of identification. If she is a minor, then her parents must have given their consent for her to have an abortion.

I understand that the other side of this argument will have defenses ready. Most likely one of their defenses will be something along the lines of, “What about cases of rape and incest?”. Rape and incest in and of themselves are wrong and sinful. When a woman finds out she is pregnant, whether she was raped or not, and she doesn’t want the child, why is the first option that is given abortion? Adoption is always an option. There are plenty of couples in the world who can’t have their own children, and are anxiously waiting for their chance to adopt. Every time an abortion happens that woman is taking away the opportunity from another couple to adopt her child and become the family they have always wanted. In other cases, if a woman finds herself pregnant through consensual sex and she doesn’t want to raise the child, oftentimes she will choose abortion as a way to get out of the pressures of being, in some circumstances, a single parent.

Other times, an abortion may be offered if the health of the mother is in the balance. Take the case of Saint Gianna for example. She was an Italian physician who was diagnosed with cancer during her fourth pregnancy. Instead of undergoing chemotherapy, having an abortion or any other type of treatment, which could have killed or harmed her child severely, she chose to go through with the pregnancy, despite knowing it was unlikely she would survive. In these cases, the mother’s life is not more important than the baby’s, or vice versa. Both lives are equal. Neither life can be directly taken. If all medical means have been taken, short of an abortion, and the mother or baby dies, or both, then nothing morally wrong has been done, because an effort has been made to save both their lives, but has failed. That is different than killing.

Another defense of the “pro-choice” people would be that during an abortion, the fetus does not feel any pain. This is false because it has been proven that the baby can feel pain after week 8. By week 8, the baby’s heart is beating, there are brain waves being transmitted and the nervous system can register pain. Those three criteria are everything that is needed for a human to be considered “alive”. Why is a child in the womb considered not alive when it meets these criteria? A great example of this is the short movie Silent Scream of Terror, in which a graphic depiction of an abortion happening at week 12 is shown through an ultrasound. During the time that the abortion is actually occurring, the viewer can see the infant moving around, trying to escape the probing instruments. At the end if the abortion, the viewer can see the baby’s mouth open in a silent scream of pain before being killed. In today’s culture, a doctor would not inflict the ripping apart of limbs on a fully developed human being. Why should this method of termination be inflicted upon a living unborn infant?

To reiterate, abortion is morally and religiously wrong, and should be illegal throughout the country. By having an abortion you are denying God his plan for you and your child, and you are playing His role in choosing who lives and who dies. Abortion should never be used as a way to get out of being a parent; adoption is always an option. Abortion should be illegal in America because everyone, even unborn babies, have the right to life and no one- no one- has the right to decide that they don’t.

Sincerely,

Lindsay B.

Student, KHS