If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament

As it was recently brought to the attention of what I hope was everyone in the Active Collective, by the fantastic speaker from Both Eyes Open (whose name very temporarily escapes me), abortion in New Zealand is still illegal. And while, in practice, I believe that the system is relatively lenient, it still leaves the question of why we aren't more involved in the debate on abortion. In that vein, (and mostly because I can't be arsed writing a lengthy post that no one reads anymore, anyway) I'd like to leave you with a link.



The cartoon above I'm pretty sure I've seen in a NZ paper, although why and how I'm not quite sure...



It's essentially a collection of editorial cartoons on abortion. As pointed out in the prompt for the post,

"…when pregnant women are depicted, they are often faceless, voiceless, or shown without any agency. Oftentimes they are not depicted at all, and the fetus is used as the cartoonist’s mouthpiece."

I thought this was really interesting, and I was wondering if any of y'all had an opinion on why this is. As shown by the second cartoon above, and a couple of others at the source, it's something that happens in both pro- and anti-abortion images. is it because, as the cartoon above suggests, cartoonists are simply making them representative of all women? Or is it because the debate over abortion is one no longer concerned with individual women, rather the law-makers and abortion advocates?