A False Premise

Black mothers are

three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women

Black mothers are

five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related disorders

For black mothers,

abortion is about saving lives not ending them

A ban on abortion means

more death for black women - the rate will rise by a third

A ban on abortion means

more death for poor women,

Who seek unsafe ways to save themselves

To "die trying" becomes a gruesome reality

There is no sense of poetry here.

When women are treated merely as vessels

Criminalized, brutalized, marginalized

We cannot begin to consider the value of "lives" lost

When we do not value the ones already living

Black mothers may have abortions at higher rates

But that's not due to some moral failing

At least not on their part - this racist nation is to blame

These women, often poor, the game stacked against them

Lack access to healthcare that should be a right

As their schools teach abstinence if anything at all

If you think Black Lives Matter,

focus on the human beings here now

Instead of clumps of cells and some imagined future

The reality is they were saved

From a world that doesn't want them

This country hates women,

the black and brown ones the most.