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.

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