Dear Future President,

As a sixteen year old high school student from Michigan, I am in no place to inform you of the ongoing debate on abortion. I’m sure there isn’t much I could tell you that you don’t already know. But, on the same hand, as a sixteen year old student from Michigan who happens to be female, I do feel - in some ways - that it is my duty to make sure that I am guaranteed an inherent right to my body. By banning abortion, this right is taken away. The ban gives up a woman’s body and her choice with what to do with it, to the government.

It is important to note that just by simply placing a ban on abortion, they won’t stop happening - only the safe ones will. So not only would this illegalization strip away a woman’s right, but it would also put her in danger. Before 1973, the year abortion was legalized in the United States, the methods used to abort were extremely hazardous and unsanitary. These methods included inserting a hanger into the cervix, douching with bleach, or beating the stomach. This led to infection, serious hemorrhaging, and even death. Certainly, this is not the road we want to go back down. We need to protect our nation’s ethics and most importantly, our women.

Abortion supports the right to life. Pregnancy has many complications that can be life-ending for some potential mothers. The child is not the only one at risk when it comes to pregnancy. An estimated 303,000 women died in 2015 due to complications in birth. These numbers can only rise if abortion is banned.

For an argument like this, there is no inbetween. There is no middle ground. You are on one side or the other - pro-life or pro-choice. By banning abortion or legalizing it, there is still one side of the argument whose moral code is being denounced. How can we solve this issue unless one opens their mind to see another’s point of view? The issue is that many pro-life arguments are moral based, and therefore loosely defendable and easy to counter. The strongest legal based argument is that abortion is murder, and therefore prosecutable. But one important fact to take into account, is that when the fetus is aborted there is no brain activity and if done early enough, no heartbeat. Technically, the fetus isn’t alive and cannot be murdered.

Abortion is an unalienable right. Women shouldn’t be persecuted for holding a right to their own body. In cases of rape, abortions help women escape from emotional and physical distress that long affects them after sexual assault. I don’t want to grow up in a world where the well-being of women are brushed under the table. I don’t want to grow up in a world where I am oppressed for being a certain gender. Abortion is a topic that will have to be solved one way or another. Hopefully, it will be solved in favor of right minded women. It is our body, and our choice.

Respectfully Yours,

June D.