I am Geraldine Santoro [View All]

[Solly Mack]

I fled my abusive husband and sought comfort in another. I became pregnant by my lover. Fearing for my life at the hands of my husband, I sought an abortion. With no options,my lover and I performed the procedure ourselves. While I lay dying, bleeding to death in my hotel room, my lover fled. A maid found my body the next day.


I am Rose Jimenez. The Hyde Amendment killed me. I couldn't afford an abortion and, thanks to Congress, much needed funds for women on public assistance, that could have allowed me a safe abortion, were stopped. I was 6 months away from my teaching credentials. I died from a botched illegal abortion.


I am Pauline Roberson Shirley. My husband was off seeking work in California while my 6 children and I were living with my mother. Times were hard. It was 1940. Being black didn't make it any easier. I started to hemorrhage after an illegal abortion. I bled to death while my mother searched the neighborhood for donors.


I am Becky Bell. I died in 1988. I was only 17. I was afraid of telling my parents I was pregnant. I didn't want to disappoint them. I wish I could have told them but parents, even the best of them, put a lot of pressure on their kids to be perfect. I know they loved me but it would still have broken their hearts to know their little girl was pregnant. "Good girls" don't do those kinds of things and all that. They would have been ashamed of me. Boys can just walk away but girls can't. It's just not that easy for us. How could I tell my parents that I let them down? I could have gone before a judge but people talk - and my parents would still know - so I had an illegal abortion. I got very sick and my parents took me to the hospital - and while I lay dying, the thought of hurting them - the shame I felt - was still too great and I couldn't tell my parents even then.


I am every woman who has ever been beaten, raped or murdered. I am the daughters yet born who will inherit the world from me. I am the little girl afraid of disappointing her parents. I am the woman who wants her own life and not the life others would dictate for her. I am every woman.

So are all of your mothers, your sisters, your daughters, your aunts....

To my brothers who cannot hear

Your crowning glory
Your place at birth
Must I be less
to give you worth?