<Your Name
123 Your Street
Your City, ST 12345
(123) 456-7890
no_reply@example.com>
<Date 2022>
<Elected Official
CEO, Company Name
123 Address St
Anytown, ST 12345>
Dear <Elected Official>,
I would like to start this letter by thanking you for advocating for the unborn and passionately pursuing pro-life policies and legislation. I too am pro-life, but unfortunately find myself unable to fully support the pro-life movement in <your state>. This ultimately comes down to the fact that the pro-life movement is not bringing the right people to the table when creating the wording for amendments or getting their professional input when proposing new legislation. This is demonstrated in how the proposed amendment to the Constitution of <your state> was written (included is one example from Kentucky): “To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.” Because of the poor wording, I had to vote against this change. Simply using the word “abortion” is too broad and perpetuates a significant risk to the pregnant person carrying the child.
In order to protect walking, talking, breathing, extra-uterine human life, these pro-life laws need to be written to specifically target elective abortions. For example, when creating proposed legislation, one could simply add in the word “elective” or use the ICD-10 CM code Z33.2 which is for an “encounter for elective termination of pregnancy.” This code excludes early fetal death with retention of dead fetus, late fetal death, and spontaneous abortion. We are seeing instances across the country of providers hesitating to perform necessary abortions/inductions for their pregnant patients because these unclear state laws have them fearful of losing their license or facing criminal charges. These situations could be avoided if lawmakers would simply invite obstetricians and other appropriate medical professionals to the abortion discussion.
While I have your attention, I think it's prudent to remember there are things that can be done to help make abortion unthinkable in our state and country. A pregnant person needs resources, support, and healthcare so they don’t have to question if they can support themself and their child. Some of these burdens can be relieved through the provision of universal healthcare, eliminating food deserts, and requiring paid parental leave.
Thank you for taking the time to review my concerns and consider my ideas. I strongly want to be able to support pro-life legislation in <your state>, but I need to be confident that the decisions being made are not only protecting the lives of the unborn, but the lives of their mothers.
Your Name