Okay, It’s A Person: I Still Have The Right To Get An Abortion

Emily Sinclair Montague
6 min readJun 8, 2022
Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash

This is an open letter to all those who argue the personhood of the American fetus. You win! I’ll go ahead and pretend to believe, unequivocally, that a fetus is a person and has a person’s rights.

I still have the legal and ethical right to get an abortion if I become pregnant.

Oh, how can that be! I hear you cry. She’s talking out of her ass! You add (in my colorful imagination). Guess what? I’m right. And I’ll put it in clear-cut terms so you can understand precisely where one person’s rights begin and another person’s end.

Let’s say you’re dying of kidney failure. You need one kidney to be replaced in order to survive. I have a kidney that’s THE perfect match for you. Can you make me give you that “extra” kidney of mine? Can you make me give you that kidney if the person who needs it is your child, your spouse, or your mom?

Nope. You cannot. If you try to threaten or intimidate me into giving you my extra kidney, you will be breaking the law. I can have you arrested. I can prosecute you. You can get medical care, you can seek help and try your best to find a match, but you cannot force me or anyone else to give you that kidney.

Let’s look at an even less dramatic scenario. I’ve been hit by a car shaped like a giant baby. I’ve lost a…

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Emily Sinclair Montague

Author & Full-Time Writer. Embracing life’s chaos one word at a time. Get in touch at emsinclair@wordsofafeather.net (or don’t, but I love the attention)!