Wounded, Broken, Not Yet Defeated

Blood drips from the warrior’s ribs. The spear cut deeply. Still, she stands. Though wounded, she is not yet defeated. 

We have been wounded. But we are not yet conquered. We fight, but we do not fight alone.

Four of the Justices who overturned Roe said during their confirmation hearings that Roe was settled law. Justice Thomas said he had no opinion. They lied.

Justice Kennedy voted in favor of the Mississippi law but not on a complete overturn of Roe. He is no less culpable for the spear thrust in our side.

We fight for more than abortion access. We fight for our ability to direct our own lives, to live by the dictates of our own conscience and to allow everyone else to do the same.

We fight alongside those who will die from abortion attempts.

We fight alongside those who will die from high risk pregnancies in a country with the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized nation.

We fight alongside the families who will bury loved ones.

We fight alongside people who will be forced to carry a reminder of rape.

We fight alongside the children born of those rapes who will carry lifelong trauma.

We fight alongside the children who will be abused.

We fight alongside the children who will grow up in poverty with no social safety net.

We fight alongside parents as they watch their children suffer.

We fight alongside the teenagers who don’t know enough about contraception because they only learn abstinence.

We fight alongside the teenagers who will marry too young and for the generation they will give birth to.

We fight alongside those who simply aren’t in a place to give birth.

We fight alongside the thousands of children already in foster care.

We fight alongside the thousands of children who age out of foster care. Those who have nowhere to go. Those the system has already failed, and those the system will fail in the future.

We fight alongside every Black, Latinx, and Indigenous sibling who has been or will be sterilized through force or coercion. 

We fight alongside our siblings who are neurodivergent, those with mental health needs, those with epilepsy who live with a history of forced sterilization.

We fight alongside Indigenous nations and their stolen children. 

We fight alongside the Black community and their murdered children.

We fight alongside our siblings who will experience an increase in intimate partner violence.

We fight alongside our trans siblings for bodily autonomy.

We fight alongside our gay and lesbian siblings who know very well the pitfalls of conservative morality laws. 

We fight alongside the doctors who must choose to break either the law or their code of ethics.

We fight alongside everyone who will lose contraceptive care.

We fight alongside those who face the moral judgment of their religious and cultural communities.

We fight alongside those who will die by suicide.

We fight alongside our matriarchs who were called “hysterical” and locked away in asylums for advocating for themselves.

We fight alongside our siblings who aren’t at risk of forced birth but who feel the effects of it.

We fight alongside those who use their voices and votes to stand between us and laws that hurt us.

We fight alongside our brothers, our fathers, our husbands, our sisters and wives and nonbinary partners.

We fight alongside our matriarchs who fought for reproductive healthcare until 1973. We draw on their wisdom and power, and we call on them to help us through the generations. Those that are with us are more than those that are against.

We fight, wounded and bleeding, but not yet wholly defeated.

We are warriors from birth. We stand with nations and generations of warriors. And we will conquer.