The dictionary defines fetish as; An abnormally obsessive preoccupation or attachment; a fixation. Of course it also defines it as; Something, such as a material object or a nonsexual part of the body, that arouses sexual desire and may become necessary for sexual gratification, but lets not go there.
The recent announcement of Dr. Morgantaler receiving an Order of Canada has brought out the fetus fetishers in full force. Sticky, sappy odes to the unborn and attacks on those who *gasp, shriek, swoon* actually see sex as a normal part of life. Babies are punishment for your sins sweet sexy mama er…. evil harlot. [quick aside; now are they adorable miracles from god, or punishments for sex? Make up your minds!]
At a recent Jesus Freak festival fetishers were provided with merchandise to help make them visible to other fetishers such as t-shirts with the ever popular holocaust message “and a baby suit proclaiming “Former Embryo.”” Now we are going to assume that the baby suit was for a baby, but one can never be sure. And it is perhaps a mark of the failure of abstinence education that they must point out that the ‘person’ in the stroller who no longer counts for much, was once an all powerful fetus.
Today in the Calgary Herald, Selina Renfrow writes about her CHOICE to carry her pregnancy to term. Never once recognizing the irony in her words.
At the age of 20 I was pregnant, single and living at home. It took me two months to decide what I was going to do; two months to choose a path for my life.
I chose to be a mother.
Image via WikipediaMs. Renfrow speaks to her religious beliefs and how they guided her decision and I am happy that she had the choice in that decision. I am happy that there are not pregnancy police deciding whether or not she can have a baby. I am happy that women’s rights advocates have made society kinder to single moms. I am happy that she didn’t lose her job, family and reputation by having this child out of wedlock.
Now if only Ms Renfrow and others of her persuasion would recognize that others have the right to their choices as well. The woman pregnant from rape or incest, the teen pregnant because she hoped that sex would mean love, the single career woman like herself who is unprepared and unwilling to take on the responsibility of a child, the mother who already has children and cannot afford one more, perhaps financially perhaps emotionally, the woman with a medical condition for whom a pregnancy may mean a devastating result to her health, as Ms. Renfrow points out birth control can fail does that mean that one is fated to pregnancy regardless of impact?
Choice it’s what separates us from fascism, political or reproductive.
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