Dear Future President,

    As you may know, abortion is a very sensitive and controversial subject, however, this is a topic that must be discussed. I am pro-choice; I think a woman should be able to get an abortion under whatever circumstance as long as the fetus has not had time to develop fully. She is the only one who understands the situations in her life; the government should not stop a woman from doing anything if they are not aware of how she truly lives her life. We must get out of this mindset that a woman is no more than a reproductive tool.

    A woman who chooses to remain anonymous on alternet.org told her abortion story. She was pro-life until she accidentally got pregnant and wanted an abortion. She grew up in a very religious family so she was raised to believe that it was wrong. Although she grew up on these beliefs, once it hit her in real life, she took a step back.The man who impregnated her left her. She was very young and was not financially stable enough to raise a child by herself. She had dreams and aspirations that did not involve having a child at that time, so she set out to reach those goals. A woman should not be ashamed for wanting to do something other than have children. Even if she were to have the child, both she and the child could be struggling their whole lives.

    This is the side of abortion  the government does not show. Pro-life activists are always generalizing the act of getting an abortion; they never speak of the individual cases. They always say if they can't keep the child, put them up for adoption, but they never mention how the child will feel their whole life either knowing that their parents wanted an abortion and they adopted them instead or  living in a foster home. People who are Pro-Life also say that the child could grow up to be extremely brilliant or immensely talented but what they don't say is that they may never be able to get to their full potential because women get abortions mainly because they can't maintain a child. Pro-life will never make sense because they only think of the child as a fetus growing to be a child and not a child with their future in their parents hands. 

    According to NAVAL's Pro-Choice poll, nearly 70% of registered voters say the government should not restrict access to abortion. The truth of the matter is that we are in a new generation where women are seen more than just the bearer of lives. Women should have all the rights to their reproductive system. To put this into perspective, the article "Abortion: No More Apologies " states that in 1973, martial rape was legal because a wife belonged to her husband. People believed that the only reason that women were put on this earth was to produce children. We are in a new era and we are long overdue for a change in mentality.

    Having an abortion is such a personal matter, the government should have no say in a woman's decision. A woman should be able to have dreams that don't involve being a mother. To conclude, I think abortion should be completely unrestricted and a woman should not be shunned by society if they have one because the world will never understand a woman's future more than herself.

Sincerely,

Jess

East Central High School