Why do people, especially men
Want to restrict women’s freedom
To make choices about their bodies?
When a man and a woman decide to have sex
Do they both consider what might happen
If they get pregnant?
All those one night stands
Those bar hopping hook ups
Do these people consider that
They may be making a human life?
If yes, what to do if pregnancy occurs?
Ultimately and ideally, the woman
(Along with her health provider’s input)
Makes the final decision about her health
And whether or not she will have a baby
If people seem not to understand the
Possible consequences of sexual intercourse
(That it may result in a baby even if
Birth control is used)
Then whose choice is it to decide?
Always the woman’s choice
If men could get pregnant
Would those men be OK that
A government full of female leaders
Make policies and set precedents
About whether or not the man or boy
Should have a baby?
Of course not. No doubt about that
Why do men want to quash any woman’s
Right to abort if she has given
Careful thought and consideration to the
Whole situation
Not just to when a heart starts beating
But also to her health, her relationship with
The father, her status as a provider for the child
And so much more?
Why?
Some say because if women aren’t limited
In their making such decisions
They will run wild and act out sexually
Horrors of horrors
(just like many men do)
Or, perhaps women will kill
Baby after baby, extinguishing men's wishes
To shoot their sperm all over the world
To produce many babies (for their egos or farms?)
Most men don’t even know if they
Have impregnated one night stands
Or what happened to the babies
When mothers can’t afford to continue
Medical or law school, when mothers have
To go on welfare to afford life
With a new child, when mothers may
Die because of the dangers of childbirth
Or the violence of illegal abortions
Most men aren’t monsters, or are they?
Don’t they care about their babies, their offspring?
So easy for them that women have babies
And that women have primary responsibility
For children and men can accept
Hardly any responsibility for woman or child
Monsters? If not, what?
So easy for men to have sex and then
Never see the woman again
So easy for men to deny responsibilities
When they have sex with women
In this Western, industrialized society
How can we the people let the Supreme Court
Full of Republican jurists decide that
The states can decide whether or not
Women and girls will be mothers?
What about rape? What about incest
Oh, have those babies too? Why?
These leaders often say they are Christian
People of faith who then
Kill some people by the death penalty
Kill other people with policies and procedures
That are antiquated and unjust
Unfair for All people
Why are the prisons so full of people of color?
Not because they are the only ones who commit crimes
Not at all
Is this a lack of empathy on men’s parts?
Is this narcissism or selfishness?
Is this not caring about what happens after sex?
Are men really that galling of a gender?
(Some of my best friends and family are men)
Men love to be adored, love to be loved on
But some want to control their women
Possess them, keep them in chains
So maybe they can feel like BIG men
Powerful and mighty
Just like God and the church where
God’s in charge and the people
Should do God’s bidding
But, isn’t that confusing the divine
With the human? And, God with a man?
Whose fault is this Supreme Court decision
That robs women from making free choices about
Their bodies? Whose fault indeed?
All of us may be complicit, actually
Let me count the ways and the people
Responsible for how we have arrived at this
Place so many years after freedoms were granted
We have gone back to the dark ages
Why?
What do we do about this now?
How do we make changes that are healthy?
Who has the voice or votes that decide?
Now women may return to coat hangers
And back alley abortions, resulting in
Infections, death and/or sick babies
Will some men feel relieved, believing
These women deserve such horrible consequences
For being sexual beings
(Just being like the men who had sex with them)
No matter, they may say, because men don’t have to
Deal with those women, those deaths, those babies
Are women willing to withhold sex from men
So that they can exert power over their own bodies?
How will men feel about that?
Oh, sure, some may turn to female sex workers
But what if these sex workers also deny them?
Will they turn to male sex workers then?
(And don't say gay)
Or, figure out that they do depend on women
Like their own mothers who raised them?
If they cannot grow up and accept
The responsibilities of being good fathers, then
They don’t get to choose
They need to lose that option
Or else
We shall bring back the ancient Greek comedy
Lysistrata, a play by Aristophanes, where
Women withhold sex to end war
Is that what men want?
Will women be willing to go on strike?
