
Culturally-diversified biracial girl with
a small diamond nose ring and a pretty smile
poses beside the words
“Women Deserve Better”.
and I almost let her non-threatening grin
begin to infiltrate my psyche
until I read the unlikely small print
at the bottom of the ad:
Sponsored by the US Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities
and the Knights of Columbus
On a bus
in a city
with a population of 553,000,
4 teenage mothers on the bus with me,
1 Latina woman with 3 children under 3
and no signs of a daddy.
One sixteen year old black girl
standing in 22-degree weather
with only a sweater
a book bag
and a bassinet,
with an infant that ain’t even four weeks yet
tell me that Yes…
Women do deserve better.
Women deserve better
than public transportation rhetoric
from the same people who
won’t give that teenage mother
a ride to the next transit.
Won’t let you talk to their kids about safer sex
Have never had to listen as the door SLAMS
behind the man who adamantly says,
“That shit” ain’t his
leaving her to wonder how she’ll raise this kid.
Women deserve better
than the 300 dollars TANF and AFC
will provide that family of three
or the 6 dollar an hour job at KFC
with no benefits for her new baby
or the college degree she may never see
because you can’t have infants at the university
Women deserve better
than lip service paid for by politicians
who have no alternatives to abortion
though I am sure
right this moment one of their seventeen year old daughters
is sitting in a clinic lobby
sobbing quietly and anonymously
praying parents don’t find out
or will be waiting for mom to pick her up because research shows
that out-of-wedlock childbirth doesn’t look good on political polls and
Daddy ain’t having that.
Women deserve better
than backwards governmental policies
that don’t want to pay
for welfare for kids
or health care for kids
or child care for kids
Don’t want to pay living wages to working mothers,
Don’t want to make men who only want to be last night’s lovers
responsible for the semen they lay.
Flat out don’t want to pay for SHIT
but want to control the woman who’s having it.
Acting outraged at abortion.
Well I’m outraged
that they want us to believe
that they believe
that women deserve better.
The Vatican won’t prosecute pedophile priests
But I decide I’m not ready for motherhood
and it’s condemnation for me
These are the same people who won’t support
national condom distribution to prevent teenage pregnancy.
But women deserve better.
Women deserve better
than back-alley surgeries
that leave our wombs barren and empty.
Deserve better
than organizations bearing the name
of land-stealing racist rapists
funding million-dollar campaigns on subway trains
with no money to give these women
while balding middle-aged white men
tell us what to do with our bodies
while they wage wars and kill other people’s babies
So maybe women deserve better
than propaganda and lies
to get into office
Propaganda and lies
to get into panties
to get out of court
to get out of paying child support
Get the hell out of our decisions
and give us back our voice
Women do deserve better
Women deserve choice
“What Woman Deserve” by Sonja Renee Taylor 2018 (Thank you, from the bottom of my heart)

I love your post! It is filled with humanity
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I really felt this. Amen👏🏽
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I’m a Post-War generation ~ 1942 ~ and I remember the history in America. It’s hard to believe, that in the highest court in the land, a Supreme Court Justice wouldn’t know that the reason our health and our voices weren’t in the Constitution (or the Bible) is because we weren’t heard and didn’t matter. Chief Justice Roberts was against overturning by 5-4. This ruling was more about politics than law. The women in my family, since 1919, have treasured their right to vote. #PROLOVE
“Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest.”
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The right to vote is something many take for granted this day. They don’t know the history and how much we fought for our rights.
We are back paddeling and it’s scary, even the United Nation made a comment, so did every other country, but sadly that’s not being translated, so that we can’t read it. The greatest country in the world doesn’t want to deal with the truth.
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Thanks for sharing this poem, Bridget. Sonja Renee Taylor says it all. The hypocrisy and double standards continue to infuriate me.
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Indeed she did, she is as angry as many of us are.
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How this subject became so politicized, and how anyone could see these recent events as a victory of any kind, is beyond me. No woman should be forced to carry a baby she doesn’t choose and want, and no baby should be born unwanted either. The world is a messed up place.
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Thank you so much for sharing these very powerful words Bridget. What shocked me more than the white, middle aged, balding men spouting this hateful nonsense was the women who were cheering and ecstatically proud that they had overturned Roe vs Wade.
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How any woman can vote her rights away in the name of a god or gods is something I will never understand. America has changed, the land I chose to live in so many years ago would not be my choice today. America is falling back into the middle age because state and religion is no longer separated. Believes are just that, believes. Keep them, cherish them, and live by all the wonderful rules your god(s) made for you, but please, don’t force your lifestyle on others.
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Absolutely! Whatever happened to tolerance and mutual respect?
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It has left this country.
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Ours too!
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Goosebumps!
If women were guns, they’d have more rights in your country. Thinking backwards has never helped any society.
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Sadly, you are correct. They white angry men demanded the choice for everybody to be armed if they chose to be. Two days later they denied the women the right to rule over their body. The have the bible in one hand, with the other they shoot and kill, but protect the unborn life more than they ever will protect the living. It’s disgusting.
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Wow, Brigid – Amen to this entire piece!
❤
David
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She has gumption, doesn’t she. Hit it with every line!
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Million dollar campaigns on subways. Shocking waste of money and a lack of perspective to even empathise with women and their bodies. Misguided and ignorant. This is important. Thank you for sharing, Bridget.
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“Misguided and ignorant” is what America has become. The land of the free is not so free anymore. Whenever the separation between church and state is not longer uphold, the countries start to be in trouble. We are now officially one of them.
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It seems so, Bridget. Yet I know that there are many, many kind people in the US, but their voices are being drowned out by the extremes. There isn’t an obvious or easy solution. For such a country that is powerful and ‘free’ – freedom has come at a heavy price. The interpretation of freedom is adulterated and stretched to validate to something that sane, altruistic people would deem unethical behaviour. The Church does appear to have a significant role – and if we look at history, that been more hard-line than considerate.
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The land of the free is not as free as they want us believe we are. We are run by the NRA and extremist republicans.
It’s actually to the point where we have decided to enjoy our golden years overseas.
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Wow that is a big decision! Do you know where you might emigrate to?
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