No Room For A Pregnant Woman

The other day the minister made a little point in his sermon about there being no room at the inn for Mary, a pregnant woman. Not only was the inn full up, but nobody was prepared to give up their comfort for a woman who was clearly about to give birth.
Everybody's elbows were so sharp, their minds so focused on their precious selves, that the natural healthy impulse to help had vanished.
Like our sick society, I thought, sick with selfishness and the disease of the 'I'. Like our sick society, the pregnant woman is shunted to one side, out of sight. Here too there is no place for a pregnant woman.
Capitalist society only values monetary power. Fifty years ago men held all the positions of power because they earned the money. Women were second class because, although they worked in the home, bringing up the children, they did not possess the power of money.
But this patriarchal perception of women's lack of worth still has not changed. Women have access to money, careers and power, but only on men's terms. If anything, the woman of the past, she who works for family and home, yet does not work in the power structure, is valued even less now than a hundred years ago.
A woman is only valued when she gives up womanhood.
In our society a pregnant woman is a burden. She has stepped out of line. She has stopped earning money and has reduced her consumption.
Society is no longer matrilocal. Women are no longer sacred. This is the revolution of our time.
A child is now an obstacle to consumption, a lifestyle choice. Having a child is no longer the right of every woman. No longer does man feel the obligation to protect and provide for the mother and the young.
Childbirth has been outsourced. The children of the poor from the neo-colonies are brought in to do the dirty jobs.
There are not enough children of our own to work for us as we grow old. Too many of them have been aborted along the way, to give us time and space to buy our baubles and take our vacations.
Here and now in Merry England there's no room at the inn for a pregnant woman.