Meet Sonya Renee. Sonya has decided to write this poem for all the women who have lived in shame because of their decision to have an abortion. That’s a lot of women. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 4 of 10 unintended pregnancies ends in abortion. And in 2011, that added up to over 1 million abortions. Some estimates even say 1 in 3 women will have an abortion in their lifetimes. Sonya is not alone.
She knows what it’s like to be considered a monster, a murderer, selfish, and all the other names that people place upon women like her.
And then she shares her own story: being a scared 19-year-old woman, pregnant by a teenage boy, staring her future in the face. Teen pregnancy and childbearing continue to carry significant social and economic costs, and like most women, she weighed not just the emotional consequences of her decision but also the very real impact it would make — on her education, her work, her life.
In the end, she makes clear that even in her decision to have an abortion, she chose life: her own. And she will not be ashamed of that choice.
Written words can’t do her passion justice, though. Her poem is fierce and so is she. Make sure to watch her magic below.
