Should abortions be legal? Abortion has always been a highly debated topic. As female students we went out and interviewed students and faculty at Naugatuck High School to find out the opinion of our community.

“A woman has sovereignty over her body and the government should not interfere with that decision” said an NHS student.

Seventy-seven percent of students believe that abortions should be federally controlled and 100% of the students surveyed said they were pro-choice.  

In 1973, U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the landmark case Roe v. Wade and found that women can legally obtain an abortion. The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution gives women the right to privacy when having an abortion.

There are 10 states that have do not prohibit abortions at anytime.  Twenty- two states prohibit abortions at post- viability. 8 states don’t allow abortions after 20 weeks and 8 other states don’t accept abortions after 24 weeks. Thirty-seven states require counseling if you are having an abortion.

In an anonymous survey we asked whether abortions are acceptable, the anonymous responses showed that there are cases in which abortion are acceptable. One person even replied with “always”.

Some believed that abortion is only acceptable in a certain time frame. “When the mother makes that choice early in her pregnancy,” someone said about when is it okay.

However, there were others who believed that abortions are never acceptable. An anonymous source respectfully responded with “In my opinion abortion should not be done, but it is not my life nor me bringing it into this world. So everyone should be able to decide for themselves.”

We also went around the school to interview more people on their opinions on abortion.  The responses varied and everyone had explanations to back themselves up.

One teacher, who would like to remain anonymous,  said, “I had a person once tell me that I would never have kids. So to be able to have children and be told that and to have people say that they don’t want kids.  I understand that every circumstance is different but there are other options.”

Mrs. Fitzgerald, a math teacher, said she is a “mother who was told she could never have children.” She remembered, “I was 5 months pregnant when I found out and they told me I had to make a decision [about abortion] because my life was threatened and to me it’s not a choice”