Who could not be pleased for Jacinda Ardern and Clarke
Gayford that they are now the parents of an apparently healthy baby girl? I can’t
think of a more life-changing experience.
They are entitled to our best wishes. But two things strike
me about the national reaction to the event.
The first is that judging by the purring emanating from
politicians, media commentators and people on the street, by which I mean all
that tiresome, self-congratulatory stuff about New Zealand showing the world how
things should be done, you’d think we were all miraculously involved in the
baby’s conception.
Well, hang on. It’s Jacinda Ardern’s and Clarke Gayford’s
baby, not ours. There’s something slightly creepy about the way the entire
country seems to be claiming credit for the birth.
The other thing is that many of the people cooing with
delight over the event also support women’s right to have an abortion. But can
someone please explain how a baby can be a source of such joy in one set of
circumstances, yet be treated as something to be discarded as an inconvenience
in another? I just don’t get it.
Further to your final paragraph, interesting that so many Americans fail to see the irony of protesting the separation of suspected illegal aliens from their (alleged) children, while condoning the separation of a woman from her (potential) child.
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