Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe V. Wade in 1973, federal law has protected a woman’s right to choose if she wants an abortion.

I personally believe that a woman has the right to make her own choices regarding her body. Yes, common belief is that abortion is the “easy” way out of the mistake of getting pregnant; however, even if it is, we as citizens of the United States have the right to privacy, meaning our personal information is protected from public scrutiny.

Another common belief is if you get pregnant, you need to take responsibility for your actions. Is keeping the child the only option considered responsible?

If getting an abortion is avoiding responsibility, which implies that it’s a woman’s obligation to raise a baby if she chooses to be sexually active, it seems as if you are sexualizing women for what they are “made” to do instead of actually taking accountability for the life of her child.

And no, I am not an extreme feminist.

Now, say the woman takes responsibility for having sex and getting pregnant and decides to keep the child. If the mother knows she won’t be able to provide for her child to the full extent, is it actually more responsible to put the child up for adoption or have an abortion?

Yes, women can practice safe sex and avoid pregnancy. If she and her partner choose not to use protection and end up getting pregnant, I believe that the couple is at fault and need to own up to their mistake. In that case, I do not believe in abortion unless you have some medical reasoning that would cause a deformity.

On the other side, not everyone has access to contraception or proper sex education on how to use contraception or where to get it. However, if contraception were free and available, would all women use it? Probably not, nor is any contraception 100 percent effective. Would women turn to abortion as a form of contraception?

A lot of people, including myself, think it’s acceptable to have an abortion if the woman was raped and impregnated. On the other hand, why only in the case of rape?
If a child is conceived from rape, is the child worth less than the children who were knowingly conceived?

That is one of the top reasons why I am pro-choice. In that case, is adoption a good alternative to abortion?

Well, maybe if you are pro-life. However, there is an overwhelming amount of children already going into the foster care system. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children’s Bureau, in 2015, approximately 270,000 children entered the foster care system, while only approximately 62,400 children got adopted in that federal fiscal year.

A lot of people believe that as taxpayers, they shouldn’t have to pay for abortions. Well, the Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision barring the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortion except to save the life of the woman or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape, has protected taxpayers who oppose abortions from having to pay for them.

I also believe it is important to point out that only three percent of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions. A majority of their services include contraception, mammograms, pap smears, STI testing, treatment for both men and women and sex education.

I know what you’re thinking, “What if your mother aborted you?” Well, that’s simple.

If my mother aborted me, I wouldn’t have any recollection of being aborted or even be able to realize I ever existed.

Do you remember being weeks old in your mother’s cervix after being conceived?

Either way, my mother would have had a choice, and you should be grateful that all women in the United States have that choice.