I am a teenage girl and I don’t want Trump making decisions about my body
Donald Trump on Overturning Roe v. Wade and Women’s Rights
During the third and final presidential debate, Donald Trump mentioned that his Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. Hillary Clinton responded by mentioning that Trump has supported punishing women for having an abortion and withdrawing financial support from Planned Parenthood, saying “I could not be more opposed to that kind of thinking”. Trump also mentioned he supports the federal ban on “partial birth”, saying “in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother.”
Abortions in the ninth month do not happen. About 91% of abortions happen in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. Not even a full 2% take place after 20 weeks, and the majority of that 2% take place after 24. In 2003, the “partial-birth” ban was signed by President George W. Bush, which dictated a fine and imprisonment for any physician who performed a “partial-birth” abortion.
This stigma around late term abortions is appalling, and seems to be used as an excuse for people to oppose abortion as a whole, when really, they make up 1.3% of all abortions.
Abortions are a horrible thing to experience, and nobody is pro-abortion (I once had someone call pro-choice “anti-life”). It has been acknowledged again and again that abortion is not ideal, but pro-lifers (who I would argue are not really pro-life) often treat it as if women want to have an abortion. This is not true.
Trump’s comments, frankly, are terrifying to me as a teen girl. I don’t want someone accused of raping a 13 year old girl, sexually assaulting multiple women, and boasting about being able to sexually assault women because he is “famous” to become president and pass laws that control my body and the bodies of all women.
Trump is consistently putting women down, and I’m afraid that if he gets elected, he will instill those views into our society, and the millions of women in the United States (including me) will continue to be oppressed. Even if he doesn’t get elected, the people who are continuing to support him, despite his “locker room talk” and the various accusations against him, will continue to make this world a scary place for me.
People like him are one of the reasons I carry around pepper spray every time I leave the house, the reason I get nervous around men, and the reason my body is regulated. I am scared I will become a statistic, and I am scared for those who are.
Donald Trump is not someone I want creating laws for me and my fellow Americans. He respects almost no one in this country, a country who’s very foundation was built on equality. So I urge you to go out and vote, if not for yourself, then for me and other being oppressed by his beliefs.
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