Women, you may think that the flesh that covers you and the organs and muscles and neurons that make you breathe and poop and eat are your own, but actually they are not. Oklahoma State Rep. Justin Humphrey can see how might “feel like that is” your body, but if you are pregnant, he regrets to inform you that your body is now a “host” and you are an interloping ghost that once used to inhabit it.
In an interview with the Intercept, this is how Humphrey justified the unconstitutional bill he recently introduced, which requires pregnant women to get the fetus’s father’s permission to obtain an abortion:
Ultimately, he said, his intent was to let men have a say. “I believe one of the breakdowns in our society is that we have excluded the man out of all of these types of decisions,” he said. “I understand that they feel like that is their body,” he said of women. “I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host.’ And you know when you enter into a relationship you’re going to be that host and so, you know, if you pre-know that then take all precautions and don’t get pregnant,” he explained. “So that’s where I’m at. I’m like, hey, your body is your body and be responsible with it. But after you’re irresponsible then don’t claim, well, I can just go and do this with another body, when you’re the host and you invited that in.”
“Congratulations on becoming a host and inviting that in!” is a truly beautiful thing to say to a pregnant woman. Hallmark should start printing that on cards for baby showers.