Donald Trump and the Republicans are happy that they got their tax cut for the rich, which raised the deficit to unwise heights, justifying (in their minds) cutting social security, Medicare and Medicaid. Now they are hoping to prohibit abortion, a legal right since 1973.

Women don’t have equal rights without abortion rights. Men aren’t forced to be fathers: why should women have to be mothers? Adults deserve the right to make decisions about our own bodies.

Americans supposedly have freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Forcing poor women (rich women will have their abortions elsewhere) to go through unwanted pregnancies means forcing conservative Christian beliefs on them. What about a woman’s right to her own life? Studies such as one in Obstetrics & Gynecology (January 2012) have shown that having a legal abortion is actually far safer than giving birth.

Anti-abortionists who love children should favor programs for children’s health, education, meals and other needs, but most seem to favor “the unborn” over actual living children, such as the immigrant kids taken from their parents.

We could drastically reduce abortions if parents taught their kids about sex, including both abstinence and birth control information.

President Trump and conservative Republicans are trying to take away a woman’s right to choose by filling any Supreme Court vacancies with conservative anti-abortion judges, even though according to Pew Research, “About seven in 10 Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade.”

What’s next? Will they try to take away a woman’s right to vote? 

Ellen Field, New Gloucester