The Arkansas Senate recently passed a bill called the Human Heartbeat Protection Act which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. This can be as early as the fifth week of the pregnancy.

This absolutely infuriates me to the max. A woman has every right to decide what to do with her body and to decide what happens to it. No government has any right to tell someone what to do with their body!

The Roe v. Wade case of 1973 gave women the right to abortion until the third trimester of their pregnancy. The third trimester begins around 28 weeks into the pregnancy. So the wonderful Arkansas legislation wants to ban abortions 23 weeks earlier than the normal. I applaud them tremendously.

I know many people will disagree passionately with me and I’m preparing myself for the possible slew of hate that could come my way. Before you call me a heartless demon, know that I do care about life.

I don’t believe that “killing” an infant is right, but I DO believe that life happens. And these things do happen and while it is tragic, it happens every day. And there are thousands of healthy beautiful babies born every day as well.

I believe in being honest so I’ll be honest and say that I’ve thought about the issue of abortion a lot and what I would do if I were to be in that situation. Being a 17 year old high school student, if I were to get pregnant at this time, I would take abortion into serious consideration.

I’m not going to lie. While it would be an extremely hard decision to make, I have to think about my future and what I want. Having a child at 17 could seriously damage any respect that people had for me, and I know that I would be judged, whether it be vocally or silently. It could damage my chances of going to college and getting a degree and starting my career.

I am someone who always puts others before myself, but I feel that in circumstances like these, it is imperative to think about yourself seriously and decide what is best for yourself, not just in the near future but down the road.

Taking away a woman’s right to her body is not a good decision, and I believe that if passed by the Arkansas House, will only be the first of many rights to be taken away.