Dear Mr./Mrs. President,

My name is Victoria Welch and I’m writing to let you know my thoughts on abortion. You should first know that my parents terminated a pregnancy before I or my older sister was born. I’ve always been passionate about the subject and had a strong opinion. After finding out about my parents actions in their past I did more extensive research to educate myself.

Abortion is murder. Everyone who supports abortion dresses it up and makes it seem okay as it it doesn’t kill a baby, it just ends a pregnancy. This is true, abortion ends a pregnancy, but does so by killing the living being inside of a woman, the baby.

Babies can survive on their own after 28 weeks of gestation and after 21 weeks they can survive with a very little amount of help. Some people say that an abortion is okay before that 28th week because if it can’t survive on its own then it can’t be considered a baby. I bet those people never thought about their moms, dads, or grandparents hooked up to machines keeping them alive, though. Many people in their lifetimes will be hooked up to machines in a hospital to survive because of an illness or surgery etc., and if someone unplugged that machine then the person would die and it would be considered murder. In this situation, the mother is the life support machine for the baby. The second that a sperm meets an egg and it becomes a fetus in a uterus, it is living, it is alive, and it is a baby. A human life with its own systems and feelings and brain. With 3D sonograms we are able to know that at just 8 weeks babies in the womb can feel pain. When they need to have their blood drawn it can be seen that they pull up away from the needle and wince in pain. Imagine if they hurt from a needle for their blood to be drawn, how it must feel to be vacuumed out of its mother's uterus. 

Then there’s the financial side of things, people say an abortion is okay if the woman could not support the baby once it’s born and until it leaves her house. There’s an easy solution to this: adoption. There are so many couples in the world that can’t have a baby on their own because of physical problems or they're in a same sex relationship and they are always looking for pregnant mothers wanting to give a baby up for adoption as soon as it’s born. It would be a gift to them and no longer a financial inconvenience to the woman if she would simply choose adoption. In most cases once the woman finds a couple to adopt her unborn baby, they pay for prenatal vitamins and even maternity clothes so there really is no financial issue attached to being pregnant.

Another reason many people say it’s okay to get an abortion is when a teenager becomes pregnant. Most teenagers can’t imagine the consequences from their parents if they found out their daughter was having sex and got pregnant. Also, there are many young girls with big dreams and aspirations that will be stunted if she must take care of a baby; in that event there's the adoption alternative as well. Even in those situations, I don’t support abortion because if a girl is old enough to be having sex, then she must be old enough to know the risks that come with. Then she must be willing to deal with the consequences, if need be, in a way that does not involve the murder of a baby. If a teenage girl won't be caught pregnant then she should 1) use protection every time and 2) take birth control but 3) ultimately not have sex until she’s out of her parents’ house and/or ready to be a mother. 

Lastly, people who are pro-choice don't realize that no one gets to choose what they do with their body. There are laws in the nation and rules in people's houses that try to control what people do and if they can't be controlled then there are consequences for their actions. It's called being pro-choice because pro-kill-unborn-babies is too harsh. The reality is no one can really choose what to do with their bodies. Women choose to have sex and then they think they can choose to avoid a consequence that could come from that choice. If a woman chooses to have sex she needs to be choosing then to deal with the effects.

These are just my thoughts, I do have a point to make regarding the government. I believe it should be illegal for women to have abortions with very few exceptions. These exceptions would be if a woman is impregnated due to rape and if delivering the baby through vaginal birth or C-Section would kill the mother or baby. No woman should have a reminder for nine months at the least of the horrible things that happened to her like being raped. Also, delivering a baby that dies in the following few days is a tragedy no parents should ever have to endure, if it is easier for them to terminate the pregnancy early on I do support that. And if the pregnancy could kill the mother then I support an abortion because she could go on to live (with or without her partner) and adopt a child or use a surrogate mother and be an excellent parent to a child that needs it. I would say that abortion should be illegal except in those circumstances but it must be determined before a certain time that those are truly the circumstances at play.

In addition, I think it should be expressed in health classes in high schools around the nation that adoption is a very wonderful alternative to an abortion and would have no financial effect on the birth mother. This would hopefully decrease the chance of a woman not wanting a child to go and find somewhere to obtain an abortion because if it’s illegal then the places she’d have to go would be unsanitary and dangerous.

My final note is that if women are willing to have sex, they must be willing to deal with what sex can result in, and deal with it in a non-criminal, morally right way.

Sources:

Jayeshnaran. “Matt Chandler on Abortion.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Jan. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=absW29h8KGA.

“Current Laws :: NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado.” Current Laws :: NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, www.prochoicecolorado.org/in-our-state/current-laws.shtml.

“Surgical Abortion (First Trimester).” UCSF Medical Center, www.ucsfhealth.org/treatments/surgical_abortion_first_trimester/.

Parenthood, Planned. “In-Clinic Abortion Procedure | What Is the Cost &Amp; Process?” In-Clinic Abortion Procedure | What Is the Cost &Amp; Process?, 26 Apr. 2016, www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/abortion/in-clinic-abortion-procedures.