Silenced Choices, Stolen Futures
A poem by an alumna of Cohort 7 of the Advanced Short Course on Advocacy for Reproductive Justice.
In the heart of Liberia, where rivers run deep,
A silent storm stirs, yet few dare to speak.
Laws from afar, with an iron hand,
Dictate the fate of this sacred land.
A mother whispers, her voice unsure,
Dreams deferred, but she longs for more.
Denied the right to choose her way,
Her body’s will is stripped away.
Clinics close, their doors now bare,
Once a refuge—now despair.
A girl of sixteen, a child in tears,
Trapped by the weight of foreign fears.
The “gag” they call it, a quiet decree,
Silencing truths that could set us free.
Doctors turn, their hands are tied,
While justice waits, pushed aside.
Yet justice is not a thing to beg,
Nor a right to lose by a foreign pledge.
Reproductive freedom is ours to claim,
Not a pawn in another’s game.
So we rise, with voices strong,
For choice, for rights—for what is wronged.
Liberia’s daughters will not be still,
Their futures shaped by their own will.
