Britain’s Anti-Abortion Parasites
A VOTE on abortion:
Haemadipsa picta, the Borneo tiger leech, sits on a leaf in the rainforest, waiting for something, anything to pass by: an orang-utan, you, my daughter Eve, whatever. Actually it sort of stands there like a tiny penis, using its horrid thin end as an antenna, trying to detect body heat. When it does, boing! It throws itself off the leaf and down your Calvin Kleins, there to suck your blood. I’ve seen it do this, but most people really don’t believe it until it happens to them.
The tiger leech, however, is a monstrously inefficient parasite compared with Britain’s anti-abortion movement, which – always alert to the least possibility – has somehow leapt from its bush on to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, and may by this evening have won an improbable vote to curb the abortion rights of British women. While most of us were distracted, engaged in debating saviour siblings and hybrid embryos, Haemadipsa Restricta worked its way through our political underwear.
Posted: 20th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
