In their lifetime not all women have babies, not all can, and not all want to. Yet every person who gives birth is a woman and all mothers are female. Feminists in the UK fought very hard for reproductive rights, and we defend them fiercely just as we do the right to retain the word “woman” and “mother” exclusively for female people.
You can’t and shouldn’t force women to be mothers, then, but at the same time men should not be allowed to completely replace women in the parenting of children, whether that is by adoption or surrogacy. Given the statistics on male violence against children, it simply isn’t safe for the child — and especially for babies — to be raised exclusively by male strangers.
This week saw the horrendously distressing court case of Baby Preston. Preston Davey was 13 months old when he was brutally murdered after serious sexual and physical cruelty, by two men who were allowed to adopt him.
There are on average 63 child homicides a year. Infants under 1 are over-represented in statistics, accounting for between 19 and 20 homicides each year. Most of these are committed by a parent or step-parent, and this murderer is most often a male. Over 90 evident of all homicides in the UK are committed by men. It is statistically evident that it is significantly safer to place a child in a home with a woman or multiple women.
The sexual risk to children from men makes this even more necessary. Last year a sensational revelation from Gavin Thomas, the President of the Police Chiefs Association was that there are so many child sexual offenders that it would be impossible to jail them all and he called for “softer measures”. Around 98 per cent of child sexual offenders are male. The National Crime Agency meanwhile revealed that it is possible that 750,000 men are interested in sex with children.
A 72-year-old widowed man was granted permission in Scotland to become a parent to a surrogate child. The question anyone evaluating his suitability needed to ask is why he wanted this? His answer could never have been sufficient to make it primarily about the benefit to the child. Men like this make such a demand due to their own selfish needs — and in some cases those “needs” will be very much against the interests and safety of the child.
As Sanchez Manning discovered via FOI, since it became legal 43 men over 60 have applied to become the parent of a child born to a surrogate mother. These men are taking babies from women and some of these men will be a sexual and physical risk to those babies. It is an evil practice and governments are morally and ethically empty in allowing it to proliferate.
Ian Watkins targeted and seduced women with babies in order to be able to rape the infant. He was sentenced to 35 years for some of the most hideous crimes against very young children and few shed a tear when he was in prison killed last year. Men with depraved sexual needs will do whatever is available to ensure those needs are met whether it is grooming or adopting.
Gay men are not any less risky than straight men, despite a willingness by some diversity and inclusion devotees to suggest otherwise. They are still men. For this reason, it is crucial that babies and young children are never adopted into homes where there are only men. It is vital that the government makes moves to ban surrogacy altogether. No one should be buying children or renting women’s wombs (including women and not even if those women are famous).
Source: Babies need women | Jean Hatchet | The Critic Magazine