Lauren Fedorko

/ Kelsey Review

Roe vs. Wade

I am so sorry for the women I love who had an abortion. I am so sorry for the women I do not know who had an abortion. I am so sorry for the women who will need an abortion. I am sorry for the women who have had to make this decision in secret; somewhere between twilight and the first sounds of the early songbird, their snow-white chests puffing with decadence. I am sorry for the women who wanted to keep the baby, but couldn’t. I am sorry for the women who knew they couldn’t be mothers. I am sorry for the women who couldn't afford the child and couldn’t give them a life they deserved. I am sorry for the women who cried afterwards. I am sorry for the women who had no support. I am sorry for the women who were in an abusive relationship when this happened. I am sorry for the women who had to make this decision privately, tucked away inside a box and then shut inside a locked drawer. I am sorry for the women who were afraid, deer in headlights, frozen in time. I am sorry for the women who were called murderers when they confided in someone. I am sorry for the women who wondered if they were. I am sorry for the women who had to drag themselves to work the morning after and act like everything was normal. I am sorry for the women who had to drive a far distance and talk to strangers who guided them in a difficult time. I am sorry for the women who found out their pregnancy was dangerous and were left with the option to save themselves and terminate. I am sorry for the women who still think about their choices and who are haunted by them. I am sorry for the women who had no say in the matter and were raped. I am sorry for the women who were young and just made one bad choice. I am sorry for the women who had to confide in someone else to help them make a choice they didn’t know how to make. I am sorry for the women who stared into the emptiness of the sky afterwards and felt hollow for days. I am sorry for the women who have to keep posting that they love someone who had an abortion; are someone who had an abortion. I am sorry for the women who were in school and couldn’t do both. I am sorry for the women who thought about poverty and work and the impossibility of it all. I am sorry for the women who didn’t want to do it alone. I am sorry for the women who have to constantly justify their actions in a world that places them lower than men. I am sorry for a system that’s failing what was intended. I am sorry that 174 years ago women gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention and that we still have to fight. I am sorry that all truths are not self-evident and that only men are created equal. That they are endowed - by a select few - with certain unalienable rights; that among these are all lives above a woman’s, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Amen.



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About the author
Lauren Fedorko, M.Ed., is an Adjunct Professor of writing at Rutgers University, teaches AP Literature and Creative Writing, and advises the literary magazine for her students. Her passion for writing is longstanding and ongoing, composed mostly of poetry and creative non-fiction. She enjoys exploring, good company, and traveling the world every chance she gets. Her work has previously been published in the Kelsey Review and The Inquirer.

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