December 4, Abortion or Women’s Rights?

 

To make a woman bear a child she does not want to raise:

The Constitutional debate our highest court now weighs.

And, when you add that some states can’t or will not help her out,

That further complicates the issue this case is about.

 

The Red States seem to think abortion ought to be a crime.

With Donald Trump’s Supreme Court, now they also think it’s time

To ban abortion totally or, if not, bit by bit.

And pregnancies from rape or incest matter not a whit.

 

So Mississippi asks the Court to cancel Roe v Wade,

Removing reproductive rights, so women are dismayed.

Is this “pro life,” “pro choice,” or more about equality?

Does liberty for women give some men anxiety?

 

The sanctity of every life?  Well, that is not so clear.

We’re tolerating forty thousand gun deaths every year.

Rich women will still get abortions; they can relocate.

Poor women won’t, if they cannot afford to leave the state.

 

And now, while Trumpist anti-vaxxers threaten all our lives.

They act as if they do not care if anyone survives.

As anti-vaxxers shout “Pro life!” with loud and raucous voice,

They’re waving signs for all to see, “My Body and My Choice!”

 

Do women filling colleges and grad schools threaten men?

Should that turn reproductive rights into a grievous sin?

Do Red State legislatures disapprove of “women’s lib?”

Instead, should women stay home tending babies in a crib?

 

Our women had a right; will the Supreme Court slam the door,

Ignoring their own precedents, thus punishing the poor?

Can women overcome this latest onslaught by the right?

The lesson for all women is: you still will have to fight.