Cara Valentine

AP LANG B5

11/5/16

Dear Mr./Mrs. Future President,

I am writing to you about the concern of abortion. This issue is very important to me because whether it should be legal for a woman to terminate her pregnancy, highlights the question of who has rights and why do they have them. On one side of the debate the argument goes that a woman owns her own body (right to life) and has the right to do whatever she pleases to it. On the other side holds that the growing fetus within the woman is not actually her property to do with as she pleases and itself has the right to life and, morally, can not be aborted.  I am pro-choice though I do see the other side of the argument, I believe abortion should remain legal.

Abortion should remain legal because it is a fundamental right, a right that requires a high degree of protection from the government encroachment. Women count as people, as human beings, therefore they should not be denied an alienable right. This would be humanly unjust. The US Supreme Court has declared abortion to be a "fundamental right" guaranteed by the US Constitution. The Constitution gives a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy, and that this is a right of privacy and is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. While others may disagree and say that Abortion is murder. As well, as the killing of an innocent human being is wrong, even if that human being has yet to be born. However, personhood begins after a fetus becomes "viable" (able to survive outside the womb) or after birth, not at conception. Embryos and fetuses are not independent, self-determining beings, and abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, not a baby. A person's age is calculated from birth date, not conception, and fetuses are not counted in the US Census. The majority opinion is that the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment [of the US Constitution], does not include the unborn. It is important that Abortion remains a fundamental right, because as a women it is a basic, or inalienable right and such rights belong without presumption or cost of privilege to all human beings under such jurisdiction.

Abortion allows reproductive choice which in return, empowers women by giving them control over their own bodies. When women can chose what they can do with their bodies, they can decide their future. The choice over when and whether to have children is central to a woman's independence and ability to determine her future. While others may say that abortions cause psychological damage, not empowering women. However, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in 1992 "The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives." Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also wrote on the controversial procedure exclaiming in her dissenting opinion in (2007) that undue restrictions on abortion infringe upon "a woman's autonomy to determine her life's course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature." Abortion is a private decision between a woman and her doctor. Reproductive choices are important because they can protect women from financial disadvantage. Many women who choose abortion don't have the financial resources to support a child. 42% of women having abortions are below the federal poverty level. When a Sep. 2005 survey in the peer-reviewed Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health asking women why they had an abortion was conducted, it was found that 73% of respondents said they could not afford to have a baby, and 38% said giving birth would interfere with their education and career goals. The `Right to Choose' empowers women and is an important part of women's health rights and women's reproductive freedom. Why should women be denied this reproductive freedom?

The access to legal, and professionally-performed abortions reduces maternal injury and death caused by unsafe, illegal abortions. Though many people may say that Abortion may lead to future medical problems for the mother. However, before abortion was legalized women would frequently try to induce abortions by using coat hangers, knitting needles, or radiator flush, or by going to unsafe "back-alley" abortionists. In 1972, there were 39 maternal deaths from illegal abortions. By 1976 when abortion was legalized nationwide, this number dropped to two. Is is important that abortion remains a fundamental right because,  The World Health Organization estimated in 2004 that unsafe abortions cause 68,000 maternal deaths worldwide each year, many of those in developing countries where safe and legal abortion services are difficult to access.That is exactly 68,000 maternal deaths too many. If abortion was to be modified, made harder to access, or illegal imagine what that number would climb to.

Yet another reason why I am pro-choice, and why abortion should remain legal is that this procedure gives pregnant women the option to choose not to bring fetuses with profound abnormalities to full term. While a con that is often brought up is that abortion promotes a culture in which human life is disposable, and that if women become pregnant, they should accept the responsibility that comes with producing a child. However, some fetuses have such severe disorders that death is guaranteed before or shortly after birth. These include anencephaly, in which the brain is missing, and limb-body wall complex, in which organs develop outside the body cavity. It would be extremely cruel and harrowing  to force women to carry fetuses with fatal congenital defects to term. Even in the case of nonfatal conditions, such as Down syndrome, parents may be unable to care for a severely disabled child, due to financial disadvantages. Modern abortion procedures are safe and do not cause lasting health issues such as cancer and infertility. Pregnancy-related complications were more common with childbirth than with abortion. Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures performed in the United States. Studies have shown that the mortality rate of a colonoscopy is more than 40 times greater than that of an abortion. If abortion is no longer available to women, you didn’t just end legal abortion but safe abortion.

While some say that abortion promotes a culture in which human life is disposable, Abortion eliminates the potential societal contributions of a future human being, and that  this procedure reduces the number of adoptable babies; however, this extremely “controversial” procedure not only supports the rights of women, and safe abortions but it also supports the economy in many ways. An example of this is that, it reduces welfare costs to taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency, evaluated a proposed anti-abortion bill that would ban all abortions nationwide after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and found that the resulting additional births would increase the federal deficit by $225 million over nine years, due to the increased need for Medicaid coverage. Since many women seeking late-term abortions are economically disadvantaged, their children are likely to require welfare assistance. Abortions is also justified as a type of population control. The United Nations estimated that the world's population will increase to 9.3 billion by 2050, which would be "the equivalent of adding another India and China to the world," according to the Los Angeles Times. Without abortions this expected number will climb, possibly double. In turn, would create very harrowing issues such as Malnutrition, starvation, poverty, lack of medical and educational services, pollution, underdevelopment, and conflict over resources are all consequences of overpopulation.

Although there are some cons to abortion as you can see there are also many pros to abortion as well. This procedure supports women’s rights, safe and legal abortion, the economy and population control. Abortion should remain legal, and a fundamental right of women, because if it were to become illegal, the women’s right to choose would be lost, safe abortions would be gone, resulting in many deaths and injuries of women and newborn babies, welfare costs to taxpayers will rise, and over population may occur. I hope you take not just the negatives into consideration but all of the positive outcomes of abortion as well and realize how important this fundamental right is.  

Sincerely ,

Cara

Works Cited

"Abortion ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., 30 June 2016. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

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Jury, By. "Abortion." Abortion. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

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Liu, Joseph. "How Important Is the Abortion Issue?" Pew Research Center's Religion Public Life Project RSS. N.p., 24 Jan. 2013. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

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Planned Parenthood. "ROE V. WADE: ITS HISTORY AND IMPAC." ROE V. WADE: ITS HISTORY AND IMPACT (n.d.): n. pag. 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Journal Article

@ppact. "Roe v. Wade." Roe v. Wade. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Worrell, Marc. "The Organization." The Importance of Safe and Legal Abortion for Women — Women on Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016