Right to Lifer
By Elena Garcia
You make me so angry!
You claim to want to help.
"Any stressed mother can come to me" you say.
"Respect all life!"
But where is your respect for mine?
To you,
a speck of my cells
is more important than I am.
To you,
a potential that is dead without me
wipes out my right to my potential.
Following your logic
menstruation is murder.
You pervert the joy of birth
for how can I love a new life
if it destroys my old life?
I will lay down my life
for my wanted child
But don't put my life on the line
for something I cannot love now.
I cannot abandon my baby to a stranger
after going through hell to have her.
But I won't go through hell for her
if I have no say in her arrival.
You deny my right to be
the mother I could be
for I will love
the children I want
the children I can rear to be loving
the children I can rear to love me
when I can plan my life around them.
You twist my choice whether to start
the most creative act of love
into a compulsory rape
then reassure me I will love my tiny rapist.
Who gave you the right
to force your laws into my body?
I won't let
a misconception
turn me into an incubator.
You take my life in your hands
when you glorify my egg
because I will get rid of it
if I have to kill myself with a coathanger.
My blood will be on your hands
for you have denied
my right to life.
Your laws try
to regulate my bloodflow
command my cell divisions
enforce the thickening of my uterus.
It's my body!
One day,
when I'm ready,
I will produce an individual from my womb
who,
upon emergence,
will become a person
with rights.
Until then
I make my own choices.
My eggs are my own
to make or break.