As you may have heard, President Donald Trump vowed in 2016 to appoint a Supreme Court justice who would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 judgement to legalize abortion. Saturday, September 26, President Trump announced that he is nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a socially conservative jurist. Although, personally, I would probably live a pregnancy out, I am pro-choice because I know that it is not my place to tell another woman, or person with a female reproductive system, what they can and can’t do with their body. No person should be allowed to make laws on something another person thinks is best to do with their body. Pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. Pro-choice means that whether or not I believe in abortion, it’s another person’s choice to do what they feel is best for them.

Many people think that abortion is murder, and whether or not you agree with that statement, how are you being affected personally by another woman getting one? The child in the womb has no idea it even exists. How is it murder to have an abortion, but okay to pull the plug on a coma patient that is on life support? Both the baby and the person on life support are alive, but neither of them are aware of their surroundings or the fact that they’re alive.

When you try to ban abortion, you’re doing nothing more than banning safe abortions. Hear me out, when something becomes illegal, people always find a way around it. For example, drugs. Drugs are illegal but there are still so many people that find ways around the system and still use them. The same thing will happen with abortion clinics and abortion in general. If abortions are not safe an accessible, what do you think people will start doing when they can’t get one? Pregnant people will start committing feticide. Young teenage girls who make one mistake and get pregnant will start going to the point to consume unhealthy amounts of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco just to purposely miscarry. People will be opening backdoor abortion clinics from their homes or jobs, and doctors can and will be going under the table doing abortions and getting paid.

Our country is already overpopulated as it is. Keeping abortion safe and legal will lower population growth and keep orphanages and foster care systems from filling up so quickly. Pro-lifers always say “we’ll just carry the baby for 9 months then just put it up for adoption” but never seem to help out whenever it’s needed. Foster cares and orphanages in this country are constantly overflowing with kids who are in need of loving homes.

The people trying to ban abortion are the same people not doing anything to help the hundreds of thousands of kids already in the foster care system. There’s a difference between pro-life and pro-birth, and most people against abortion are just pro-birth.

Keeping abortion safe and legal should be a top priority to not only to women in need, but to every other woman in this country (or anyone with a female reproductive system). This topic is so unbelievably important to me considering that Ii am a woman, and it is my job as a woman to look out for and to be considerate of every other female. So, if you can vote in the upcoming election, please do so, my reproductive rights are on the line.