Male Circumcision and Abortion — Is there a comparison point?
It may seem outlandish and extreme, but could this “What if” scenario give men some insight into how women feel when the patriarchy wants to assume control of our bodies?
In my research into the history of abortion, I found that abortion has always been frowned upon, if not illegal/forbidden. And the reason for this? Ultimately, (as men completely ran the world up until the 1960’s) the reason is male privilege, male entitlement: men didn’t want women to have the right to “abort their seed”. (Thank you to Carol Campbell for her information about “male seed” being enshrined in Greek mythology and canonized by the church fathers who believed that semen is the vehicle of souls, and women are incubators.)
In September 2021, Pastor Rich Bitterman expounded upon his reasons for his anti-abortion stance. He cited bible quotes and medical notes (some of which were inaccurate) to make his point: that abortion is cruel, evil, a sin, the murder of innocent boys and girls. However, Rich acknowledges that, even in “the Church”, abortion rates are in keeping with the secular population. I’ll take his word for that because, in general, women are ashamed to admit they’ve had an abortion, regardless of the reason: and there are many good reasons: poverty, homelessness, addiction, domestic violence, immaturity, are just a few of them. Women should not be shamed for having an abortion. Bringing a human being into the world is not something that should be taken lightly : human beings require optimal conditions to grow into healthy, responsible, productive members of society, and when these optimal conditions are not available, we see the results in our jails, on the streets, in the slums, in shelters, in rehabs and hospitals, to name a few!
Let’s set the record straight here, Rich: no woman wants to have an abortion, no woman sets out to need an abortion. Brave women who make a reasoned, responsible decision to abort only do it because they feel they must. Women generally don’t have abortions simply because the pregnancy is “inconvenient”, Rich, despite your assertion that they do.
Women have had enough of being shamed about their bodily functions! Ashamed of our periods, afraid of having a red stain on the back of our clothes, ashamed of pregnancy outside marriage, ashamed/afraid of losing their virginity — let us not forget the hanging of the bed sheet on the balcony the morning after the wedding to prove a woman was a virgin — ashamed of enjoying sex, ashamed of having an abortion!
Yes, over the centuries, women have borne the “shame”, the “sin”, of pregnancy outside of marriage. The fact that it was a male, in every single instance, apart from the Virgin Mary, who provided the sperm, was completely overlooked: it was women who were scorned, vilified, abandoned, condemned and in some cases, stoned to death — after all, you can’t hide a pregnant belly for long. Some women chose death rather than the shame.
Now let’s get back to circumcision, female circumcision in particular, or female genital mutilation — FGM : it’s very different to male circumcision — because male circumcision, apparently, doesn’t have much, if any, impact on a man’s enjoyment of sex. On the other hand, FGM destroys a woman’s ability to enjoy sex — that’s what it’s meant to do — and causes any number of health problems. For some more information on female genital mutilation, please go to What is FGM — Desert Flower Foundation .
Although FGM is often carried out by women, often with crude instruments under crude and unhygienic conditions, let’s face it, it wouldn’t be done if men didn’t condone it; if men wanted their women to enjoy sexual intercourse, if men didn’t want this control over women.
It’s yet another example of male domination over female bodies to a hideously cruel and inhuman extent.
Now let’s give this scenario some consideration: “Male Circumcision reduces risk of oncogenic HPV genotypes, cervical cancer, T. vaginalis, bacterial vaginosis and possibly genital ulcer disease in women. The reduction in risk of these STIs and cervical cancer adds to the data supporting global efforts to deploy Male Circumcision as a health-promoting and life-saving public health measure and supplements other STI prevention strategies.” ( Front Public Health, v.7:2019, PMC6365441)
So, if circumcision in males is associated with a lower incidence of cervical cancer in women, what if a group of female politicians mandated that ALL males be circumcised? No longer a “choice” for parents, but a legal requirement!
After all, cervical cancer is cruel and could result in death — or might we say “murder”? I know of a woman whose husband remarried twice after she divorced him. All three women developed cervical cancer. The man was not circumcised. This was before we discovered the relationship between viruses, circumcision and cervical cancer.
In no way do I suggest that circumcision — the removal of a piece of skin at the end of the penis — is at all comparable to abortion. It most certainly is not — nor is it in any way comparable to enforced pregnancy and childbirth!
Male circumcision is a relatively simple and painless procedure when done with anaesthetic. However, I’d like men to give some thought to their response if a group of women demanded that all men be circumcised to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in women!
Oh! The outcry! The outrage! I know that many men would happily comply out of their desire to protect their partners, but how many would rebel against such an imposition? How many privileged males would demand “How dare they?”
Yes indeed.
Yet millions of men around the world take it upon themselves to tell women how they should conduct themselves when they find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy; millions of men condone female genital mutilation.
They wouldn’t want women to force them to have a piece of skin cut off the end of their penis, but they think they have the right to force women to gestate for nine months and then give birth? I don’t know what the fatality/failure rate is for male circumcision, but I do know about the fatalities associated with pregnancy and childbirth, even today, and I do know about the fatalities associated with FMG.
What do you think, Rich?
In closing, please note: some European countries are considering bans on male circumcision. This is very concerning for a couple of reasons: what about the health implications for women? and, since male circumcision is a religious requirement for minority Muslim and Jewish religions only, is this a form of religious persecution? Food for thought. Please see: The problem with Iceland’s proposed ban on circumcision | EUROPP (lse.ac.uk)
Here’s a little more food for thought:
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