Yikes.

Saw this bumper sticker while out and about today:

"National security MUST begin in the womb!"

Of course it was written in fat, proud, starry, stripey block letters. Definitely the most f*d up pro-lifer bumper sticker I've seen to date... because not only is there the requisite, oh-so-righteous "yer uterus ain't yer own" message, but a secondary (and possibly creepier) subtext working here too¹. It seems to suggest that any pregnant woman is breeding the troops of tomorrow. That life starts at conception AND that one's nation has a claim on one which also begins at conception. That a woman must not only carry an unwanted child, but should damn well be registering that fetus for the draft while she's at it.

The two issues aren't really separate issues, but merely an extension of the same one. In essence: if my body (or some portion thereof) isn't my own, then neither is my life. My government can dispose of me as cannon fodder, slave labor, breeding stock, or in whatever other manner it's infinite, collective, democratic wisdom deems fit. That's really what it boils down to.

I guess it bothers me because it's just so brazen: are the fundies getting fundier, the conservatives getting nuttier? Or is it just my ginsuknifebrain deftly slicing through the propaganda?

Or am I reading way too much into this?

---

1. A tertiary or alternate secondary subtext has occurred to me. This would be something along the lines of "abortion is an act of terrorism". However, I have rejected this line of thinking out of charity, because it just doesn't make any freaking sense. Abortion is not ordinarily motivated by ideological goals. Additionally, while the procedure is likely to employ curettes and/or cannulas, it does not employ fear or intimidation. If it did, it would be horribly ineffective, since its intended target is nothing more than a ganglion which in many respects more closely resembles part of a shrimp cocktail than a cognitively mature human being capable of experiencing complex emotions.