303 Ashe Avenue

Raleigh, NC 27606

October 27, 2016

Dear Future President,

Have you ever had a friend experience sexual violence or rape? Did she become pregnant as a result? She had no say in whether or not to become pregnant or even become a victim of sexual violence. They did not even have plans to get pregnant, so her whole life ahead of her is in jeopardy. Imagine, you had become pregnant, and the thing that would remove your problem is gone, what would you do? If you don’t keep abortion legal, people would have to perform extreme, and illegal, things to end the pregnancy . Overall, it would be safer and easier to go with the woman’s choice or freedom to choose.

Women choose abortion for different reasons. According to a 2011 study by WebMD, most people choose abortion because of sexual violence, rape, incest, or a birth control failure. They obviously are not prepared to be pregnant, so that often leads to poverty or they cannot financially support the child they were forced to carry. A lot of times people abort the child to save the life of the woman because of a complication the doctor reported. Many women who end their pregnancies are either poor, unmarried, or they are more than 40-years-old, according to a 2003 article by eMedicine Health. The overall percentages of abortions are very low,  so each reason does not happen a lot.

The percentages of abortions are at an all-time low in this country. According to an article by Science Daily, abortion rates are the lowest they have been in the last 25 years. Most abortions are for one specific reason: rape. According to a study from the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, they sampled over 4,000 women who were raped or a victim of sexual violence and only 5% of them became  pregnant as a result (August 1996). A 2015 study from the Sexual Assault Hotline reports, “women ages 18-24 who are college students are three times more likely than women in general to experience sexual violence.” Each year on average, there are 288,820 victims, from ages 12 and older, of rape and sexual violence. When girls do not have a legal way to get an abortion, they may find an illegal, dangerous way, reported a 2003 article by eMedicine Health. Thirteen percent of female deaths are because of complications with an illegal abortion.

Another thing people do when they get pregnant forcefully is adoption. I believe that abortion is a better option than adoption in general. Imagine, you were a little child of four years old and you were in an orphanage. You did not know who your parents were and you were constantly wondering why your parents left you. Were you not good enough? Why did your parents not want you? You may end up not getting adopted, being put in a bad adoption center, or getting put in a bad foster care system. Wouldn’t it be a better option to just not have the child than have the baby and give her a life of pain?

How would the world be without the option of abortion? Unwanted children would live a life of misery, families of poverty may increase, or the woman can even die which would be tragic. In conclusion, the world without a choice of abortion for some would create even more challenging problems for the entire society.

Sincerely,

Hannah-Marie Santos

Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy

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Work Cited

"Abortion: Reasons Women Choose Abortion." WebMD, 2016, www.webmd.com/women/tc/abortion-reasons-women-choose-abortion. Accessed 14 Sept. 2016.

Bureau of Consular Affairs. "Statistics: Adoption." Intercountry Adoption, Offices of Inspector General, 2015, travel.state.gov/content/adoptionsabroad/en/about-us/statistics.html. Accessed 14 Sept. 2016.

Hamblin, James. "How Often Does Rape Lead to Pregnancy?" The Atlantic, AtlanticMonthly Group, 20 Aug. 2012, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/08/how-often-does-rape-lead-to-pregnancy/261307/. Accessed 8 Sept. 2016.

Kessler, Glenn. "The Claim That the Incident of Rape Resulting in Pregnancy Is 'Very Low.'" The Washington Post, Washington Post, 13 June 2013.

The Lancet. "Abortion Rates at All-Time Low in Developed Countries but RemainUnchanged in Developing Countries." ScienceDaily, 11 May 2016. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160511210615.htm.

"Rate of Legal Abortions per 1,000 Women Ages 15-44 Years by State of Occurance." Kaiser Family Foundation, 2012, kff.org/womens-health-policy/state-indicator/abortion-rate/?currentTimeframe=0&selectedRows=%7B%7D&sortModel=%7B %22colId%22:%22Location%22,% 22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D. Accessed 14 Sept. 2016.

Trupin, Suzanne R. "Abortion." Edited by Melissa Conrad Stoppler. EMedicineHealth, WebMD, 2015, www.emedicinehealth.com/abortion/article_em.htm. Accessed 14 Sept. 2016.

"Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics." RAINN, 2015, www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence. Accessed 13 Sept. 2016.