I just don't understand why this is still an issue

Last night there was a whole rampage on Tumblr/Twitter regarding abortion and woman's rights. I live in the UK and so I am not completely up to date with what is going on, I do however, have a vague idea after reading the majority of my dashboard. I'm not going to go too much into it, so that I don't get anything wrong, but if you are interested in finding out what has gone on then just search the politics, Wendy Davis or Filibuster tag on Tumblr or Twitter and you will get a pretty good idea of what is going on. What I am going to talk about is abortion, gay rights and the what I believe is the right age that we should be able to vote.

*Please note- these are my opinions and whilst you may not agree with them, that is fine, and I would like to listen to your opinion as well, however, remember everyone is entitled to believe what they want*

Abortion- To be perfectly honest, I am completely perplexed as to why this is even an issue. Some women are unfortunate enough to be victims of rape and end up getting pregnant because of this; could you really expect that woman to love the child that she had to have because of laws preventing abortion? Surely you would rather the child be loved and cherished and born into a life full of love. This is not the child's fault after all and so why should that child live a life where they were the result in what was arguably the worst time in its mother's life? I understand that government want to reduce the amount of women who use abortion as a form of birth control; so instead of using contraception methods they just abort the baby. This is wrong and I agree with that; so therefore, if there were rules about that, I could be more likely to get on board. Men, I am talking directly to you now, because for the most part it seems to be you who have the problem with this; when you get pregnant your whole body gets messed up and whilst if that baby was something that was planned you really don't mind, if the reason for that was because of someone who abused you to do something you did not give your consent to, why should our bodies be violated because of this? The main point I want you to get from this is that if a woman wants to have an abortion because she feels she cannot look and love a baby for any reason she should be allowed to get rid of it, if she does not and is lucky enough never to be put in that position, then brilliant. There should always be the option and it should not be an issue, because if abortion becomes illegal, do you honestly think that is going to stop people? No, it wont, but instead of being able to abort the baby in a clean, hygienic place with medical experts they will do it in unsanitary conditions and without medic help, which will cause more problems than it would prevent. A woman's body= a woman's choice.

Gay rights- I am not going to get to far into this as I feel Tumblr as a whole has this covered. However, I don't see why governments don't just pass a bill allowing everyone, no matter what the gender is to get married. With the society that we live in, with depression so high, surely a bit of love should be encouraged. However, if churches don't want to allow gay couples to get married in their churches, then fine, that is up to them because as I have mentioned before they may not have the same opinion as yourself, and whilst I may or may not agree with being allowed to marry in churches I don't think that the world is changing quick enough for the LGBT community to get married in them. Who know in a couple of years time we may look back on this (as we have done with racism) and laugh and be disgusted that people have been treated so badly.

Now, on to the bit that most adults will role their eyes at, if you are one of those adults: grow up. I believe that instead of the voting age being 18 it should be lowered to 16. I am speaking as a 16 year old who is very interested in politics and some day I would like to venture into political journalism. I find it ridiculous that as soon as you voice an opinion about something to do with political matters, an adult who is older than you will tell you to be quiet because you 'don't know what you're talking about'. To that I say, are you actually being serious? Most adults don't know anything about politics either but their opinion would be taken above my own despite me actually knowing what I'm talking about because of research and that is not okay. If any person of any age is taking an interest in the way in which their country is being run, I say encourage them, listen to what they say rather than telling them to shut up. We are the future and you are impacting my life and I'd like to have a say in what happens.