Because. We.
FIRST PUBLISHED 29th OCTOBER 2025
Because I am an English woman,
and I care what happens there.
Because what they do with women’s rights
ripples through the global air.
Because in the land of the free,
they’ve locked the clinic door.
A raped girl begged for help,
and had to cross state lines for more.
Because Roe v. Wade was gutted
fifty years, then gone.
Now a woman’s body
is a war zone she stands on.
Because doctors pause and pray
before they choose to act.
If they treat her too soon,
they could face a legal attack.
Because she must be “crashing”
before they intervene.
Blood loss. Fever.
Silent screams behind the screen.
Because a child of ten
was forced to leave her state.
The doctor who helped her
was met with fear and hate.
Because women who miscarry
can be put on trial.
Charged with murder
for their body’s denial.
Because emergency pills
are harder now to get.
And guns are sold with less red tape
than birth control or debt.
Because the lies move quicker
than the facts can find a place.
A ring light, a flag emoji,
a TikTok in your face.
Because they say that pills will kill you,
that condoms make you sick.
They trade in fear and fiction,
and the clicks come quick.
Because The Handmaid’s Tale
was never meant as real.
But someone took the warning
and signed it with a seal.
Because twenty-six states offer
no leave for giving birth.
You bleed, you feed,
then clock back in for work.
Because Black women die
at three times the rate.
While politicians preach
but legislate too late.
Because Alabama ruled
that embryos are alive.
Clinics shut their doors,
and couples can’t even try.
Because men still say “legitimate rape”
and “temptation at the door,”
instead of teaching consent
or jailing predators of war.
Because a girl can be forced to give birth
while her rapist walks away.
And books that teach her body’s worth
are banned without delay.
Because in 2024,
a man who bragged about grabbing women
by the pussy
was elected President again.
Because in the world’s wealthiest nation,
being born female
is still a pre-existing condition.
We care because we’re watching,
and silence is a scar.
What they do to women there
echoes where we are.
We read.
We learn.
We share.
We post.
We pass the torch.
We raise the ghost.
We show our daughters what they stole,
and teach our sons the cost.
We hold the line with tired hands,
and grieve for what was lost.
We’ve marched through streets in every town
with signs and broken shoes.
We know that laws don’t keep us safe,
but stories spread like news.
We organise in kitchens.
We campaign while folding clothes.
We build a rising from the ground
in whispers no one knows.
We carry grief inside our ribs
and fury in our feet.
We stitch our wounds with memory
and take them to the street.
We are not small.
We are not weak.
We are the storm
they tried to keep.
We are not going back.
We are the ones who would not kneel.
The fire they couldn’t drown.
The daughters of the ones who burned,
and still would not bow down.
We will rise
in every street,
in every law,
in every seat.
We will rise
with sharpened grace,
with louder voice
and fiercer face.
We will rise
because we must.
Because we are
the ones they crushed.
We will rise.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
This poem is built not on opinion, but on documented fact. The lines you’ve just read reflect real-world events, rulings and data. Here’s where to verify every single one:
Overturning of Roe v. Wade – Supreme Court decision, June 2022
Doctors forced to delay care – Texas Tribune, Oct 2022
10-year-old rape victim – NPR, July 2022
Texas woman charged after miscarriage – The Guardian, April 2023
Emergency contraception under threat – Politico, 2022
False reproductive health claims online – Washington Post, 2022
No paid maternity leave in 26 states – OECD Report, 2023
Black maternal mortality – CDC, 2023
Alabama IVF ruling – New York Times, Feb 2024
“Legitimate rape” quote – BBC, Aug 2012
13-year-old denied abortion – CBS News, July 2023
Book bans – PEN America, 2025
Trump re-elected President – AP News, Nov 2024
SAVE Act and voting risk – CBS News, April 2025
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