I believe that all women should have the right to choose to abort a child if it’s within the first trimester. Though the baby is genetically a human, it’s not yet a person. The fetus lacks reasoning, ability to communicate, brain waves and self-awareness. Women have the right to control their own body and its life-support functions. Picture this, someone you know has been raped and is now pregnant with the rapist’s baby. Would you want them to keep that pregnancy that comes with constant reminders of what happened to her – knowing the embryo doesn’t have feelings or thoughts yet?

Paige Swanda, 11

I am pro-choice because I believe in women being able to decide what to do with own bodies as much as any other person. I am pro-choice because I believe that abortion is not murder. A fetus cannot feel pain until the 26th week of pregnancy, which is past the limit to be allowed to get an abortion. I am pro-choice because illegal and unsafe abortions should not be the last resort and there should be clean and legal clinics for a woman to go to. Lastly, I am pro-choice because a woman’s reproductive organs are not anyone else’s business.

Andrea Stewart, 11

If you want to sum it up to me being pro-life, so be it. Whether you believe that you are killing a person or not it doesn’t subtract from the fact you are choosing no life for another person. By choosing abortion, you’re choosing your life over somebody else’s life. Why is your life more important than theirs? Why is convenience more important than this baby’s future? Whether it’s “alive” or not, it’s a human… abortion is nothing but selfless and immoral. The baby had a chance and you relinquished it… your life should not be decided by somebody other than God.

Ciara Roth, 11