Dear Justice Kennedy,

I realize that you may disagree with my belief on the subject of abortion. Although, that does not
restrain you from the ability to hear others opinions, such as my own. I would like to elaborate
on the various reasons for why I believe abortion should be a legalized for women. I hope that
my perspective, along with many other people in our current society, may be taken into
consideration by people such as yourself to do what is best for our country.
Abortion is known to be a controversial topic around the globe. Many factors come to play for
people involved in this topic, such as religion and environment. Certain religions, such as the
Christian religion, states that killing a person is unacceptable. the Lord supposedly stated You
shall not murder (Exodus 20:13) and He who made you, who formed you in the womb, and
who will help you (Isaiah 44:2) along with many other statements explaining an overall concept
of how a living being is in a womb and how the killing of a living being is unacceptable. But,
embryos and fetuses are not independent, self-determining beings. Only after a fetus is outside of
a womb, is it counted in the US Census as a living being.
With more than 289,000 women during pregnancy and childbirth dying each year, shown by
research proven in the book The Trends in Moral Morality, obvious standards of danger are
posed towards women throughout all stages of pregnancies. 15% of all pregnancies deal with
life-threatening complications, such as my own mother when she was pregnant with me and my
twin brother. Having abortion in an illegal state poses more threats toward humanity than having
it be legalized. With unprofessional abortions, maternal injury and death are both high risks.
Also, women with the in-ability to become pregnant, sometimes result in doing vitro fertilization,
in which an egg from the mother-to-be or a donor is fertilized in a lab dish. This resulted in the
birth of 61,740 babies in one year, including me and my brother. This form of assisted
reproduction often results in the destruction of unused embryos, which is classified as a form of
abortion. Illegal abortion is supposed to save lives, as for one of the reasons Pro-Life supporters
disapprove of abortion- but instead, its taking them away.
Womens Rights. What does it represent? Equality. Without women and men having equality
in all subjects, society is considered an unfair environment. Equality is a major factor, as you
already know, in the United States. The United States Supreme Court 7-2 decision, Roe v. Wade,
interpreted the U.S. Constitution to guarantee the right to privacy. It elaborates on the privacy of
ones own decision, such as when it states This right of privacy is broad enough to
encompass a womans decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy Therefore, not
providing abortion as a legal option to women would be considered unconstitutional. Our society
is supposedly not sexist on most standards, but then why shouldnt women have the privacy and
respect to make their own decisions on whether or not to have a baby in a legal manner? This
subject shouldnt have to be such an astonishing struggle to be provided to women. Although
you may not agree with my state of mind, please take into consideration the large amount of
sexism that is involved with illegalizing abortion rights.
Rights toward women sadly are not involved in the horrid cases of sexual assault. Sexual assault
is the exact opposite of control over a persons own body. There is an average of 237,868
victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year, found by research done in the U.S.
Department of Justice. Based on the amount of victims sexually assaulted each year, an average
of every two minutes, a sexual assault case takes place in the United States alone. The
devastating truth is that at least 5% of women sexually assaulted result in pregnancy. Being able
to decide whether or not to have a baby can raise an amount of self-esteem of a woman by
allowing her to make her own decision about her body. This freedom so to speak, doesnt
come to play when relating to sexual assault. Therefore, illegalizing abortion would negatively
impact at least an average of 11,893 people each year by not allowing them to at least partly gain
back the self-esteem that they lost when they were forced into a situation that shouldve never
occurred.
Overall, the unhealthy, unequal, and dangerous threats that are posed by illegalizing abortion is
not acceptable. The inequality in the society that the United States is made up of would only
grow greater with the incorporation of no legal abortion opportunities. Also, the risks of death in
women while or before giving birth, along with the maternal injury that women would be at risk
of from either an illegal abortion or a dangerous, unhealthy pregnancy, influence many women
who would be negatively impacted from the illegalization of abortion. Additionally, victims of
sexual assault wouldnt have the opportunity to make their own choice about their bodies without
legal abortion rights. All of these factors come to play with the extensive controversial subject
otherwise known as abortion. Furthermore, these legitimate reasons lead me to believe that
abortion should be a legalized option for women. I hope that you will consider my perspective in
future circumstances that you may come across.