164 Years

FIRST PUBLISHED 2nd June 2025

164 years ago
the world was quiet
horses on cobbles
candles in windows
hands red from scrubbing linen
air thick with coal and chimney soot
news came by post
and it came slowly
women bore their children
and their silence
and their shame
with no vote
no wage
no name on the deed
just a body for labour
and for labour again.

Then we discovered electricity.
Penicillin.
Plastic.
Aeroplanes.
We flew to the moon.
We split atoms and harnessed them.
We melted glaciers and raised the seas.
We stitched hearts back together.
We mapped the human genome.
We made machines that could learn.
We built satellites
and sent them into space
so we could scroll the world from a screen in our hand.

We built the internet
to carry knowledge faster than thought.
We invented Zoom
and emojis
and algorithms that know what we want
before we do.
We replaced handshakes with wireless payments.
We talk to our cars.
We unlock our homes with our faces.
We work, date, bank, cry, confess online.

We modernised the post.
The phone.
The vote.
We gave women
the right to own land
to leave men
to learn medicine
to teach it
to govern
to create
to live alone
to live out loud.

But still
when a woman bleeds
her blood may be seen as evidence.
Still
a womb is a potential crime scene.
Still
the law that governs her body
was written before the lightbulb.

And still the law from 1861 lingers,
dust on our skin, ink in our blood.
A woman in pain can be asked for proof.
A woman in grief can be asked for guilt.

There is blood on the bathroom floor,
not just from birth, but from fear.
There are tears that never reach the pillow,
choked back in clinic car parks,
watched by strangers who call themselves holy.

We’ve changed almost everything,
but not this.
Not yet.
Now is the time.
To write.
To rise.
To reclaim what should never have been lost.

Because our bodies are ours.
And this law is not history.
It is now.
And we must change it.

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

Write to your MP: Ask them to support Stella Creasy’s amendment to decriminalise abortion in the UK and protect our rights from political rollback.

Share this message: Help others understand that abortion is still governed by a 164-year-old criminal law.

Stay informed: Track the progress of the amendment. Listen to The Nicola Packer Story on File on 4. Understand what’s at stake.

Listen on Instagram: www.instagram.com/withshakinghands
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© 2025 With Shaking Hands. All rights reserved. This poem and recording are original works protected by copyright. Do not copy or reproduce without permission.