No Part of Us...

"Dread Lord of Death and Resurrection,Lord of Death and Resurrection, Of Life, and the Giver of Life; Lord within ourselves, whose name is Mystery of Mysteries; Encourage our hearts, Let the Light crystallize itself in our blood, Fulfilling us of resurrection; For there is no part of us that is not of the Gods.."

Thus I stand, tonight, calling to Him: Blood Red Lord of the Hunt; Awakening Pack Leader of all the World;He who was born at Yule as the Child of Promise and who is now striding upon the Earth.

Yet, in all things, He is subject to Her rule.

Not under domination - this is just the way things are. All Life belongs to Her, and there is not one thing which is not of Her.

Which is why I always find reports like this one so troubling:

A 32-year-old woman who allegedly aborted and dumped a foetus in a drain appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Thursday, police said.

"The suspect allegedly went to Coronation hospital complaining of labour pains on Friday. Examinations by the hospital found that she had already committed abortion," said Captain Bhekizizwe Mavundla.

The hospital reported the incident to the police and the woman was arrested on Sunday.

On Wednesday, she led police to a stormwater drain in Craighall Park, north of Johannesburg, where the foetus was found wrapped in a hospital cloth.

She faced charges of concealment of death, said Mavundla. - Sapa

Actually, Mavundla means "concealment of birth", for it is under that piece of legislation that they're going to prosecute the woman.

Originally a sort of fall-back legal route for dealing with suspicion of abortion before it was legal, this bizarre law remains on our books, and, worse, the onus is on the accused to prove that she didn't intend to conceal a birth.

"Any person who disposes of the body of any child with intent to conceal its birth, whether the child died before, during or after birth, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine... or imprisonment."

Every time I hear of this, I feel a little sick in my gut. The woman, maybe too poor to afford regular contraception, but in any case firmly embedded in the patriarchal culture, has few ways open to her for preventing pregnancy.
Believe me, here it is certainly not a woman's right to say no to a man, among a very large proportion of our population.

This prosecuting of the woman after she has aborted the foetus seems just another way the Sky Father, that is, his Men of the Patriarchy, try their damnedest to control the wild and natural force that is Herself. And the result is, as it always has been, tragic.