Lyrical Analysis: “Alive Without Permission”
My song “Alive Without Permission” won second place in the 2024 Create | Encounter music category. Create | Encounter is an annual contest, sponsored by Rehumanize International, for art that promotes human rights and dignity. I am honored that “Alive Without Permission” received this award, and I hope you will give it a listen:
Our executive director, Monica Snyder, thought it would be fun for me to explain the song’s allusions, Genius-style. So without further ado:
If you’re born from Court decision
This refers primarily to Dobbs v. Jackson, the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to enact laws protecting unborn children from abortion. As a result, approximately 32,000 American babies are being born instead of aborted annually. Secondarily, “born from Court decision” also fairly describes children whose lives were saved by pre-Dobbs abortion restrictions. For example, in Harris v. McRae (1980), the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer funding of most abortions through Medicaid. As of May 2023, the Hyde Amendment has saved 2,566,968 lives.
If they say your mom’s a victim
Corporate media coverage of life-saving abortion laws has almost universally treated mothers as victims, while dehumanizing their children as “consequences,” “harms,” or “births.”
Music’s peaceful ammunition
Art and music have played a significant role in social change throughout history, and continue to do so in the pro-life movement.
Welcome to the Dobbs kids anthem
The artist’s statement that accompanied my submission states: “The year is 2038. Dobbs babies are teenagers now, and they are defiantly taking up space.” (An earlier draft of the song included the lyrics “You can give the Dobbs kids hate / But watch this song hit number one in 2038.”)
This survivor generation
The word “survivor” has a long history in the pro-life movement. In its broadest usage, it may refer to anyone born during a legal abortion regime. In its narrowest usage, it refers to people who were born alive after a failed abortion attempt. People whose parents made abortion appointments but changed their minds (with or without the help of a pro-life sidewalk advocate or pregnancy resource center) also commonly describe themselves as survivors. I am curious to see how the word continues to evolve in the Dobbs era.
Targeted by legislation
In the year after Dobbs, reactionary states have stripped the right to life from their constitutions, passed legislation intended to shield abortionists from liability, ramped up taxpayer funding of abortion, and generally done everything in their power to increase the number of prenatal deaths.
You can’t catch me, I’m a Texan
Texas has been at the forefront of pro-life legislation, even before Dobbs. The state’s heartbeat law has saved thousands of lives.
Yeah I made it full gestation
Children who make it to birth enjoy the equal protection of the law in all fifty states.
I don’t power your city lights, your city powers me
This line denounces the horrific practice of incinerating abortion victims’ corpses and exploiting them as an energy source. It has been going on for years, but a particularly salient example came to light in March of 2022, when pro-life activists Terrisa Bukovinac (an atheist with strong ties to SPL) and Lauren Handy intercepted aCurtis Bay Medical Waste Services truck outside the Washington Surgi-Center abortion facility in Washington, D.C. The truck driver had picked up boxes of fetal remains for delivery to Baltimore, where they were to be burned for electricity. Instead, he bravely surrendered the box to Terrisa and Lauren. Read the rest of the story here.
And I will march for the right to life as long as my heart beats
The March for Life is an annual event that began in 1974 to mourn the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and demand its reversal. Over the decades, millions of pro-life advocates marched down the streets of our nation’s capital to demand justice at the Supreme Court. It has also spawned many state and regional marches.
“Let their hearts beat” is a popular March for Life chant. Read more about embryonic hearts.
I don’t power your city lights, your city powers me
And I will speak for the right to life as long as I can breathe
I’m alive without permission
I won’t die for your ambition
According to a Guttmacher Institute study, 38% of mothers who obtained abortions reported that they did so because “having a baby would interfere with their education, and the same proportion said it would interfere with their employment.”
Say my pipeline ends in prison
A common objection we hear from our loyal opposition is that “unwanted” children will grow up to be criminals, and are thus better off aborted. We reject this deterministic worldview. As the saying goes, life offers no guarantees, but abortion offers no chances. We also reject the implicit assumption that people who commit crimes cease to be valuable human beings.
But you’re dead wrong
Is your conscience ever bothered
That I’m no different than the others?
I had sisters, I had brothers
Millions ripped out from their mothers
In the United States alone, over 63 million unborn babies have died in legal abortions since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
Kick my sneakers on your table
Again, defiantly taking up space. Credit where it’s due to my friend Dave, who reviewed a first draft of the lyrics and advised me that they needed to be less preachy, more visual.
Packed with planned and perfect people
Inspired by a quote from Dr. Mildred Jefferson, famous for co-founding the National Right to Life Committee and for being the first Black female graduate of Harvard Medical School: “I am at once a physician, a citizen and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged and the planned have the right to live.”
So disruptive, so distasteful
But I belong here, just you wait
No I don’t power your city lights, your city powers me
And I will march for the right to life as long as my heart beats
Hey I don’t power your city lights, your city powers me
And I will speak for the right to life as long as I can breathe
I’m alive without permission
I can see your eyelid twitchin’
‘Cause you don’t like the truth I’m spittin’
And you’re dead wrong
Lyrics and vocals by Kelsey Hazzard. Contact her about performances and covers: info(at)secularprolife.org.
