We beseeched him.

You must never go there.

But he did.

We have been conditioned to think about the idea of pregnancy as some kind of imposition on a woman and her life. This idea actually runs back through Irish culture, predating even the earliest clamouring for abortion rights. It is related to the victim-status claimed by and ceded to women in Irish culture, which has long disguised the true nature of power structures in the domestic realm of Irish life.

Because women are prone to more extravagant shows of emotion than men, our society is far more willing to concede their demands than it is those of males. Not only that, but, almost regardless of how much we claim to repudiate abortion, we refuse to criticise or question the women who seek this remedy for themselves. We will condemn the abortionist who wields the knife, the politician who implements the abortion-facilitating law, the campaigner who demands the change, and so forth.

But the person who obtains the ultimate ‘benefit’ from all this activity is regarded as some kind of enfeebled innocent, upon whom the ‘necessity’ for an abortion is always thrust by unfortunate circumstances, for which the woman has no responsibility herself. Even the priests and bishops who lead the moral crusade against abortion will never speak a word against those on whose behalf abortion is being sought.

Listening to them, one would get the impression that the thousands of Irish women who go to England every year for abortions are the sorry victims of other people’s sins.

 

John Waters (above).

Absolutely hardcore.

More wary of female emotions than abortion (John Waters, Irish Catholic)

Pic via BMD

Thanks anon