Woman Protests Texas Abortion Bill With Poem: ‘If My Vagina Was a Gun’
Public debate over a controversial anti-abortion bill heated up in Austin on Monday as hundreds of supporters and opponents testified at the Capitol during the legislature's second consecutive special session. One woman, Katie Heim, shared her opinion via a poem in which she wondered how Texas lawmakers would legislate her vagina if it were a gun.
Public debate over SB-1, the controversial piece of legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and close most of the clinics that perform the procedure in Texas, heated up in Austin on Monday as hundreds of supporters and opponents testified at the Capitol during the legislature’s second consecutive special session. One of those who spoke was Katie Heim, an abortion activist who shared her opinion in a highly unorthodox fashion: through poetry.
Here’s the transcript of Heim’s poem “If My Vagina Was a Gun.” You can listen to her “performing” it in front of the Texas lawmakers in the audio clip below.
If my vagina was a gun, you would stand for its rights, You would ride on buses and fight all the fights. If my vagina was a gun, you would treat it with care, You wouldn’t spill all its secrets because, well, why go there. If my vagina was a gun, you’d say what it holds is private From cold dead hands we could pry, you surely would riot. If my vagina was a gun, its rights would all be protected, no matter the body count or the children affected. If my vagina was a gun, I could bypass security, concealed carry laws would ensure I’d have impunity. If my vagina was a gun, I wouldn’t have to beg you, I could hunt this great land and do all the things men do. But my vagina is not a gun, it is a mightier thing, With a voice that rings true making lawmakers’ ears ring. Vaginas are not delicate, they are muscular and magic, So stop messing with mine, with legislation that’s tragic. My vagina’s here to demand from the source, Listen to the voices of thousands or feel their full force.
— Posted by Tracy Bloom.
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