To Congress,
As US citizens, we are promised the “inherent and inalienable” rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As a female and a minor, I should be no exception. Yet, when a young girl from Ohio became a rape victim at just ten years old, she was refused these very rights. At ten, she was too young to vote, to give consent, or to even drive — barely having completed elementary school. At ten, Ohio state laws almost forced her to become the mother to the child of her rapist (Goldstein & Sasani, 2022).
Forcing young girls to carry unwanted pregnancies, especially those resulting from sexual assault, violates our fundamental rights to bodily autonomy and health, undermines our future, and contradicts the principles on which this very nation was founded.
Youths are consistently unrepresented in conversations that directly impact the environment we must live and grow up in. In this case, it has come to the decisions you’ve decided to enforce on our bodies. Females aged 16-19 are four times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault (RAINN). However, you continue to ensure that the victims must physically carry the burden of this crime and this ugly political debate for the rest of their young lives. Without so much as a voice in the matter, you stripped us of the right to our bodies, and thrust half of America’s most vulnerable population into danger.
Not only has pregnancy been proven to be more dangerous for many women than a legally induced abortion — 8.8 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to 0.6 deaths per 100,000 abortions respectively (Raymond & Grimes, 2012) — but adolescent mothers have an increased risk of preterm delivery and children born to adolescent mothers have an increased risk of perinatal death and other adverse neonatal outcomes (Marvin-Dowle & Soltani, 2020). Pregnant teenagers who are denied abortions are more likely to suffer from poor mental and physical health, live in poverty, have lower school achievement, and face unemployment (ANSIRH, 2022). Still, you punish us for trying to protect our lives. You punish us for wanting to live.
At 17 years old, I am still a child, and should not ever have to be the mother of a child half my age.
Legislators who restrict abortion access deprive young women of any promise of freedom backlogged throughout the almost 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was ratified. As a US citizen under your government, you have denied our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I urge you to reconsider the policies that violate women’s rights and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Instead of 50 years of precedent, new federal legislation must set a lifetime precedent of equity and bodily autonomy.
Respectfully,
Isabella He
Bibliography
ANSIRH. (2022). The Turnaway Study. Retrieved from https://www.ansirh.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/turnawaystudyannotatedbibliography122122.pdf.
“Children and Teens: Statistics.” RAINN, https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens#:~:text=Females%20ages%2016%2D19%20are,attempted%20rape%2C%20or%20sexual%20assault
Goldstein, Dana, and Ava Sasani. “What New Abortion Bans Mean for the Youngest Patients.” The New York Times, 16 July 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/07/16/us/abortion-bans-children.html.
Marvin-Dowle, Katie, and Hora Soltani. “A Comparison of Neonatal Outcomes between Adolescent and Adult Mothers in Developed Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” ScienceDirect, European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology: X, 2020, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259016132030003X.
Raymond, Elizabeth G, and David A Grimes. “The Comparative Safety of Legal Induced Abortion and Childbirth in the United States.” PubMed, National Library of Medicine, Feb. 2012, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271/.
