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| Consequences of sex-selective abortion: increased aggression, violence and crime by Thaddeus Baklinski Tue Mar 15, 2011 13:13 EST LONDON, UK, Tue Mar 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An analysis of sex-selective abortion in China, India and South Korea by Dr. Therese Hesketh of the UCL Centre for International Health and Development points to significant societal repercussions of the practice. According to Hesketh, these include increased violence and crime due to a 10% to 20% imbalance between the number of males and females born in these countries. Dr. Hesketh and fellow researchers observed that in normal human populations the sex ratio at birth (SRB) is about 105 males born to every 100 females. However, with the advent of ultrasounds that enable sex-selective abortion, the sex ratio at birth in some cities in South Korea climbed to 125 by 1992 and is over 130 in several Chinese provinces. Because of Chinas huge population, these ratios translate into very large numbers of excess males. In 2005 it was estimated that 1.1 million excess males were born across the country, and that the number of males under the age of 20 years exceeded the number of females by around 32 million, the authors wrote. In India, similar disparities exist, with sex ratios as high as 125 in large areas of the country. A consistent pattern in all three countries is the marked trend related to birth order and the influence of the sex of the preceding child, stated the authors. If the first child is a girl, couples will often use sex-selective abortion to ensure a boy in the second pregnancy, especially in areas where low fertility is the norm. The authors cite a large study in India that showed that for second births with one preceding girl the SRB is 132, and for third births with two previous girls it is 139, whereas sex ratios are normal where the previous child was a boy. In China this effect is even more dramatic, the authors noted, especially in areas where the rural population are allowed a second child only after the birth of a girl, as is the case in some central provinces. Dr. Hesketh said that the societal implications of a preference for boys and the resultant sex-selective abortion of girls mean that a significant percentage of the male population will not be able to marry or have children because of a scarcity of women. In China, 94% of unmarried people aged 28 to 49 are male, 97% of whom have not completed high school, and there are worries the inability to marry will result in psychological issues and possibly increased violence and crime, the authors pointed out. The authors considered the implications of the surplus of men who are unable to marry in societies where marriage is regarded as virtually universal, and where social status and acceptance depend, in large part, on being married and creating a new family. A number of assumptions have been made about the effects of the male surplus on these men, the researchers explained. First, it has been assumed that the lack of opportunity to fulfill traditional expectations of marrying and having children will result in low self-esteem and increased susceptibility to a range of psychologic difficulties. It has also been assumed that a combination of psychologic vulnerability and sexual frustration may lead to aggression and violence in these men. There is good empirical support for this prediction, the authors stated. Cross-cultural evidence shows that the overwhelming majority of violent crime is perpetrated by young, unmarried, low-status males. Because they may lack a stake in the existing social order, it is feared that they will become bound together in an outcast culture, turning to antisocial behaviour and organized crime, thereby threatening societal stability and security. The authors point to the expansion of the sex industry and human trafficking as another consequence, citing a study by JD Tucker published in the AIDS Journal, titled Surplus men, sex work and the spread of HIV in China. Realization of the potentially disastrous effects of this distortion in the sex ratio has led governments to take action. There are two obvious policy approaches: to outlaw sex selection and to address the underlying problem of son preference, Dr. Hesketh said, adding that policy makers in China, India and South Korea have taken some steps to address the issue, such as instituting laws forbidding fetal sex determination and selective abortion. However, only in South Korea have these laws been strongly enforced. To successfully address the underlying issue of son preference is hugely challenging and requires a multifaceted approach, stated the authors, noting that despite the grim outlook for the generation of males entering their reproductive years over the next two decades, there are encouraging signs, such as reports of declining sex ratio imbalances in some areas of the three countries studied. However, these incipient declines will not filter through to the reproductive age group for another two decades, and the SRBs in these countries remain high. It is likely to be several decades before the SRB in countries like India and China are within normal limits, concluded the authors. The full text of the study, titled, The consequences of son preference and sex-selective abortion in China and other Asian countries was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal and is available here. |
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| The severe gender imbalance in China has been part-financed by the British government Sex-selective abortions have led to severe gender imbalance in China, India and South Korea according to a new report published this week. Furthermore, as I argue below, the British government has contributed to this problem through its financial and ideological support for abortion abroad. In the next 20 years in large parts of China and India, there will be a 10% to 20% excess of young men because of sex selection and this imbalance will have societal repercussions, states an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). A preference for sons in China, India and South Korea combined with easy access to sex-selective abortions has led to a significant imbalance between the number of males and females born in these countries. The sex ratio at birth (SRB) - the number of boys born to every 100 girls - is consistent in human populations in which about 105 males are born to every 100 females. However, with the advent of ultrasounds that enable sex-selection, the sex ratio at birth in some cities in South Korea climbed to 125 by 1992 and is over 130 in several Chinese provinces from Henan in the north to Hainan in the south. In 2005 in China, it was estimated that 1.1 million excess males were born across the country and that the number of males under the age of 20 years exceeded the number of females by around 32 million, writes Professor Therese Hesketh, UCL Centre for International Health and Development, London, United Kingdom with co-authors. In India, similar disparities exist, with sex ratios as high as 125 in Punjab, Delhi and Gujarat in the north but normal sex ratios of 105 in the southern and eastern states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The societal implications mean that a significant percentage of the male population will not be able to marry or have children because of a scarcity of women. In China, 94% of unmarried people aged 28 to 49 are male, 97% of whom have not completed high school, and there are worries the inability to marry will result in psychological issues and possibly increased violence and crime. Policy makers in China, India and South Korea have taken some steps to address the issue, such as instituting laws forbidding fetal sex determination and selective abortion, but these incipient declines will not filter through to the reproductive age group for another two decades, conclude the authors. What you will not learn from the report is the extent to which the British government, by financing the very abortion providers who have created this population imbalance, has contributed to this sorry state of affairs. In response to a parliamentary question from Baroness Masham in January 2003 it was confirmed that the British Government, through its Department for International Development, gave 150 million to support international abortion providers over the period 1997-2002. This included 20m for MSI (Marie Stopes International), 27m for IPPF (international Planned Parenthood Federation) and 103m for UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund). Between 1990-1994, the UNFPA donated $57 million to fund China's family planning / population control program which includes China's one-child policy. This policy uses compulsory abortion and sterilisation, forced if necessary. (Whose Choice:Population Controllers or Yours?, R. Whelan, The Committee on Population and the Economy 1992) (Testimony, Congressional Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights Hearing, Giao Xiao Duan 10 June 1999) UNFPA also funds International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), one of the leading global abortion promoters in the world. MSI is another. The government made clear in its reply at the time that DfID's funding policy to any non-profit making organisation or network, including Marie Stopes International, is based on its ability to effectively contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; and to DfID's overall objective, the eradication of poverty. So here we have again the myth propagated by the DFID that maternal mortality is effectively lowered by the provision of safe abortion, a false presupposition which raised its head again in its recent Consultation on Maternal Health Strategy: 'Choice for women: wanted pregnancies, safe births'. As I have pointed out in two previous blogs (one on the DFID consultation itself and one on Chiles programme) maternal deaths worldwide have in fact fallen from 500,000 to 343,000 between 1990 and 2008. This has nothing to do with abortion. Our CMF submission to the DFID points out that the real solution to reducing maternal mortality is multi-level: addressing social attitudes, education and empowerment of women, good quality obstetric/midwifery care and better birth spacing. Furthermore this is best achieved through positive engagement with religious leaders, communities and faith based organisations (FBOs). This is what the British government needs to put more energy into doing. Sadly, however, the severe gender imbalance in China has been in part financed by the British government using British taxpayers money and based on a false understanding of the real causes of maternal mortality. |
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| To protect girls, women must have rights To counter sex-selective abortion, increase opportunities and education don't limit women's control over their bodies Sarah Ditum guardian.co.uk, Monday 6 June 2011 16.41 BST The question: Should a woman's choice extend to aborting a female foetus? For the unlucky foetus conceived with two X chromosomes to parents who would rather have no child at all than have the burden of a girl, making it through a full-term pregnancy is no guarantee of a life to come. A research paper by Nancy Qian of Yale found that for every 100 females aborted in Taiwan after the procedure was legalised, 10 additional girl infants survived. Because parents could select for sex before birth, they were less likely to select for sex after birth that is, less likely to kill their unwanted girl children, either by neglecting them or simply murdering them. That means that sex-selective abortion makes a considerable and alarming contribution to the number of "missing women" out there the women who statistically ought to exist, and yet never somehow come into being. But the uptick in infant survival for girls tells us that, where termination isn't an option, parents find other means to act on their preference for boys. As grotesque as this femicide is, and whatever one believes about the rights of the foetus, it's a terrible trade-off to make: baldly, how many murdered girls would you tolerate to see an increase in the number of female live births? It's a strikingly unpleasant dilemma. And if we decide that actually, yes, we do think some infanticide is a better outcome than many abortions, and declare sex-selective terminations unsupportable, another ugly moral expanse opens up. Because now we're talking about preventing women from exercising choice about their own bodies and their own fertility. Preventing it with the best feminist motives of wanting to save female lives, sure but preventing it all the same. The systematic elimination of girl children is a terrible wrong, but taking away the rights of adult women seems like a backwards way of protecting females. Sex-selection stories in the UK (when there isn't a urgent medical motive, like a hereditary sex-specific disease) tend to hinge on a parent's burning desire to have a child they can either kick a football at or cover in pink frills reasoning that makes gender into a frivolous add-on in the quest to assemble a perfect family. But in the parts of the world that practise widespread sex-selective abortion, having a baby with the "wrong" genitals can be devastating. In Half the Sky, Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn recount the stories of women in south-east Asia beaten and abandoned by their husbands for giving birth to girls. Anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy cites northern Indian dowry traditions as one reason for the stigma against females. When having a baby girl means inviting physical danger or financial ruin, it's hard to simply condemn women for opting to terminate. It's worth remembering, too, that if the stakes are high enough, it doesn't matter whether abortion is legal or not desperate women will attempt to end an unwanted pregnancy by any means, and abortions are inevitably more dangerous when they're illegal. Another terrible trade-off: how many adult women are we willing to have die of botched procedures in order to get a few more of those missing girl children into an inhospitable world? Ultimately, though, this shouldn't be seen as a medical dilemma, but as a social one. The way to prevent sex-selective abortion isn't to legislate against it or attack the women who seek it it's to create cultural changes that transform the place of women. By offering girls education, training and opportunities for employment, femicidal traditions can be uprooted, and a world that values women and fully recognises their right to exist created instead. To get there, though, we must first accept that women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, on their own terms. Because if no one gives them autonomy in their own skin, why should they believe that their potential daughters deserve it either? |
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| Indian girls aged just one forced into sex swap ops Fri, 1 Jul 2011 Girls as young as one are being forced into sex change operations in India because parents want sons. Hundreds go under the surgeons knife each year before being pumped full of hormone drugs, according to local press reports. In India, girls can be regarded as a financial burden. Some parents are believed to pay 2,000 for treatment to correct a daughter. Alarm Childrens rights groups are alarmed at the news of forced sex change operations and have called for an investigation. There is also a problem in India of mothers aborting female babies. Feminist author Taslima Nasreen said: Shocking! Not only do people kill unborn girls, they turn girls into boys by genitoplasty. Prison She added: Doctors who practice illegal Female Foeticide & Genitoplasty should get life in prison. The surgeons behind the procedures say they only operate on children that are born with confused sex conditions. But in India there is no way to monitor the accuracy of that claim. Gendercide Earlier this year it was reported that India now has seven million fewer girls than boys under the age of seven because baby girls are being aborted. A study published in The Lancet estimated that 12 million girls were aborted in India over the last three decades. |
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| Book Review: Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. Part II: How Complicit is the UN in Asias Sex Selective Abortion Crisis? August 18, 2011 (C-FAM) A new book has raised hackles among abortion advocates about just how much the UN Population Fund is to blame for more than 160 million missing girls in Asia: aborted in the quest for sons. Mara Hvistendahls Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men is one of the most consequential books ever written in the campaign against abortion according to a Wall Street Journal review; the books scholarly credentials bolstered by a standing-room-only event with demographer Nicholas Eberstadt at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. While conservatives hail the books breakthrough research, Hvistendahls fellow progressives haggle over its findings. The liberal Guardians review elicited a terse letter from UNFPA condemning Hvistendahls conclusion that UNFPA and feminist organizations have done little to stop the practice. In the letter UNFPA claims credit for persuading the Chinese to outlaw sex selection in 1994. That law has done little, however. Sex selective abortion persists despite a similar ban in India, resulting in extremely skewed sex ratios at birth. Normally there are around 105 males per 100 females born, but China now reports a ratio of 120 boys to 100 girls and that has led to trafficking for prostitution and widespread bride buying. In her response to the UNFPA letter, Hvistendahl dodges direct conflict with the agency and instead criticizes the Guardians review as misleading readers into thinking she had proven UNFPAs direct complicity in the one-child policy that fuels sex selective abortion. There is a difference between outright funding an injustice and ignoring injustice once it occurs, she argues. Readers may not be so convinced. Hvistendahl ably demonstrates that despite UNFPAs touted mission to fight gender discrimination, the agency deliberately refrains from taking a position on sex selective abortion. UNFPA officials told her privately this is because they are in a bind since, as one demographer working with UNFPA put it, the right to abort remains UNFPAs priority issue. How do you hold on to this discrimination tag and at the same time talk about safe abortion access to it? a UNFPA officer told her: It has been a huge challenge to usWe are walking a tightrope. Internal UNFPA directives tell officers to shift the blame, emphasizing women whose husbands beat them or threaten divorce if they dont produce an heir. One pamphlet directs advocates to avoid language that holds the mother responsibleshe has very little control over the decisionchoice in the absence of autonomy is no choice. Hvistendahl cites a 2010 internal staff memo warning UNFPA country officers to stay away from the 1995 UN Beijing statement on women that condemned prenatal sex selection and female infanticide and to avoid associating the practice with human rights. As soon as they acknowledge how many women go through numerous abortions to get a boy, a Canadian sociologist told her, the Vatican will be the first one to say, Ban abortion, make abortion illegal! Fear of the A-word, Hvistendahl concludes, has immobilized the very people who should be crying oppression. |
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| Shortage of women due to sex-selective abortion in India giving rise to wife-sharing by Thaddeus Baklinski Fri Oct 28, 2011 15:46 EST INDIA, October 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Reports from some northern Indian states that have the worst gender imbalance in the country due to sex-selective abortion say that wife-sharing among brothers is becoming a common occurrence. In every village, there are at least five or six bachelors who cant find a wife. In some, there are up to three or four unmarried men in one family. Its a serious problem, said retired police constable Shri Chand, 75, in a Reuters report. Everything is hush, hush. No one openly admits it, but we all know what is going on. Some families buy brides from other parts of the country, while others have one daughter-in-law living with many unwedded brothers. A woman who reportedly escaped from such a situation in the Baghpat district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh recounted that she was forced into bearing children for her husbands two brothers, who could not find wives for themselves. My husband and his parents said I had to share myself with his brothers, said the woman. They took me whenever they wanted - day or night. When I resisted, they beat me with anything at hand, the woman stated, adding that she had never filed a policy complaint because of fear. Although gender determination tests and sex-selective abortion were officially outlawed in 1994, Indian census records show an ever-increasing ratio of boys to girls due to sex-selective abortion of daughters, because existing laws are not being enforced. According to the 1991 national census, the age 0-6 sex ratio was 934 girls to 1,000 boys, which declined to 927 in the 2001 census, and to 914 girls aged six and under for every 1,000 boys in 2011. The natural worldwide average sex ratio is 1,050 girls to every 1,000 boys. Northern districts of India have the worst ratios, with areas in some states such as Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan having just 798 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of six. A study published in May in the British medical journal The Lancet, estimated that up to 12 million selective abortions of girls have occurred in India in the past three decades, and that increasing wealth and improving literacy are fueling a crisis of missing girls. There were 4 million to 12 million selective abortions from 1980 to 2010 and just in the last decade, about 3 to 6 million, so the problem is increasing, said Dr. Prabhat Jha of the University of Torontos Center for Global Health Research, and lead author of the study. The cultural preference for boys in India leads to further neglect of girls who do survive to birth. After birth, son-preference continues to persist, leading to the neglect of girls and their lack of access to nutrition, health and maternal care in the critical early years, a UN report stated.  Girls originally named "Nakusa," or "unwanted," hold certificates with their new names, after undergoing a name change ceremony. Some parents go so far as to name their daughters Nakusa or Nakushi, which mean unwanted in Hindi. There is, however, a growing movement in India to save the girl child, to fight against sex-selective abortion, female infanticide and daughter neglect. Sudha Kankaria of the organization Save the Girl Child pointed to an initiative by a health officer in Maharashtra state, that gives girls named Nakusa the opportunity to officially change their first names. Health officer Dr. Bhagwan Pawar of the Satara district near Mumbai arranged a renaming ceremony last week that saw 285 girls receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets. Some of the girls chose names of movie stars or Hindu goddesses, or traditional girls names such as Vaishali, which means prosperous, beautiful and good. A fifteen year old took the name Ashmita, which means very tough or rock hard in Hindi. Now in school, my classmates and friends will be calling me this new name, and that makes me very happy, she said in an AP report. Nakusa is a very negative name as far as female discrimination is concerned, said Dr. Pawar. When the child thinks about it, you know, My mom, my dad, and all my relatives and society call me unwanted, she will feel very bad and depressed. We have to take care of the girls, their education and even financial and social security, or again the cycle is going to repeat, added Kankaria, but stressed that giving the girls new names was just the beginning of helping them. We need to provide them with access to education, healthcare and opportunities which will help them make decisions for themselves and stand up to those who seek to abuse or exploit them, Neelam Singh, head of Vatsalya, an Indian NGO working on childrens and womens issues, told Reuters. |
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| Sex-selective abortion causing massive gender imbalance in Taiwan by Thaddeus Baklinski Thu Dec 08, 2011 17:09 EST TAIPEI, December 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A report released December 7 from the Control Yuan, the Taiwanese governments highest watchdog body, warns that sex-selective abortion is creating a serious gender imbalance in the country, second only to China. Control Yuan stated that, according to data compiled by the Department of Health, Taiwans gender ratio at birth from 2004 to 2010 was between 108 and 112 males for every 100 females, compared to a natural ratio of about 106 males to 100 females. The government agency estimated that this has resulted in up to 3,000 missing female babies each year. Control Yuan member Gau Fehng-shian told the Taipei Times that sex-selective abortion could explain the higher sex ratio at birth for a familys third child compared with the first and second child, and the higher sex ratio at birth for mothers aged 35 compared with young mothers. The data showed that mothers are still under pressure to produce a son and heir if their first or second children are girls or when they are advanced in age, she said. The government watchdog criticized the Bureau of Health Promotion and the countrys Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for failing to monitor abortion providers. Taiwans abortion law stipulates that a woman can undergo an induced abortion if the pregnancy adversely affects the psychological or physical health of the woman or her family life. However, sex-selective abortion is illegal. Control Yuan also reportedly censured the FDA for failing to regulate the RU486 abortion pill, estimating that between 41,000 and 54,000 people use the pill per year. The FDA does not gather any data on the pills consumption, market scope, origin and distribution, or legality of use. Taiwan already suffers from one of the lowest total fertility rates in Asia, at 0.91 children per woman, and an astonishingly high abortion rate. Dr. Lue Hung-chi, professor of paediatrics at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine estimated that 300,000 to 500,000 abortions are carried out in Taiwan each year, while only 166,000 babies were born in 2010 on the island nation of about 23 million. Dr. Lue told the Asia Sentinel that measures must be implemented to encourage people to have children, and counseling should be initiated to provide an environment that facilitates adoption. According to Asia Sentinel, President Ma Ying-Jeou recently declared the low birthrate a national security issue. |
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| Pressured to abort twin daughters, woman fights Indias sex-selective abortion epidemic by Peter Baklinski Wed Dec 14, 2011 17:12 EST NEW DELHI, India, December 14, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) A woman who says she was pressured, even to the point of torture, by her husband and in-laws to abort her twin daughters, has taken her grievance to Indias legal system, filing a complaint against her relatives and giving a face to the victims of Indias epidemic of sex-selective abortions in the process. Female foeticide is a thriving industry in India, writes Mitu Khurana, whose story has attracted widespread media attention, on her blog. The practice is rampant. Private clinics with ultrasound machines and other latest technologies are doing brisk business, making a complete mockery of law. Everywhere, people are paying to know the sex of an unborn child and paying more to abort the female child. The technology has even reached remote areas through facilities like mobile clinics. When Mitu, 34, a pediatrician by trade, became pregnant with twins in January of 2005, she says her mother-in-law demanded that she undergo tests to determine the sex of the twins. However, Mitu refused to have the sex-indicator ultrasound, a practice that India prohibited in 1994 to try to curb the widespread cultural practice of female feticide. Mitus refusal triggered a response from her husband and in-laws that she says amounted to torture. In an account of her trials on her blog, Mitu claims that, furious at her insubordination, her husband and in-laws denied her food and water, trying to break her will and force her to submit to the ultrasound. She still would not budge, however. Her husband finally achieved his purpose through deception. Knowing that Mitu was allergic to eggs, he baked her a cake with eggs, assuring her that it was safe for her to eat. That night, Mitu reacted to the poisoned cake and was taken to the hospital the next morning. There her husband persuaded the gynecologist, without Mitus knowledge or consent, to perform a fetal ultrasound and to make it look like it was part of the assessment. When Mitu was found to be pregnant with twin girls, both husband and in-laws pressured her to abort her babies. My mother-in-law even told me that my two daughters would be a big burden on the family and I should get them aborted, she wrote on her blog. If not both, she said get at least one aborted. When I refused she said at least give one of them for adoption. Mitu says her husband began to completely ignore her, and demanded that she take a paternity test since he refused to believe that he could be the father of not one, but two daughters. One night the enraged husband threw Mitu out of her own home, telling her to go live with her parents. Mitu finally delivered two daughters in August, two months premature. Her in-laws begrudgingly visited her in the hospital nine days after the births. For the sake of her daughters, the young mother says she tried her best to save her marriage, even attempting to return to her former life at home, but her efforts were unsuccessful. I had no help in looking after the children. There was no love or respect for the children or me. I was not even sure my children and I would be safe there. Mitu began to fear for her daughters lives, especially after allegedly witnessing her mother-in-law push her 4-month old baby down a staircase, which Mitu claims was deliberate, although her mother-in-law said it was an accident. Fortunately Mitu was able to reach out and save her baby from harm. By March 2008 Mitus husband had abandoned his wife and daughters. He asked her for a mutual consent divorce telling her that he wanted to remarry and have sons. In April of 2008, Mitu turned to the law, seeking justice for herself and her daughters. She filed a complaint to the Womens Commissions and the health minister, but received no response. Finally, she filed a complaint under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PC-PNDT) accusing her husband of arranging her illegal ultrasound while she suffered the effects of the egg-poisoning in the hospital. Her case finally received some governmental attention after it was highlighted by local media. At a hearing with the District Appropriate Authority, Mitu says she felt slighted when she was told that the law needs to be explored, that she should try to reconcile with her husband, and that she could always get pregnant again and fulfill the wish of her husband for a son. To this day, Mitu says she remains disappointed with the attitude of government authorities towards the plight of baby girls and their mothers who try to keep them safe. She believes that those who heard her case sided with the culprits. I filed the first police complaint during my pregnancy and have been filing since then. But, the police have taken no solid step towards nabbing the culprits. Instead, they are taking sides with the offenders, she said. My husband and in-laws were given a clean chit [official note]. I have been threatened many times and persuaded to withdraw the case and told to reconcile with them. The judiciary should be sensitive and take a stand. It has been more than 14 years since the PCPNDT Act was implemented and the sex-ratio in our country is still falling, she said. Mitus public stand against the prevailing anti-girl values in Indian have now cost the young mother her job. Every authority, be it in the police, the judiciary, or the hospital where I was working, are trying to force me to withdraw my cases. It was due to this harassment and certain threats that I had to leave my job recently. Despite all the cultural forces that are against her, the young mother says she believes that her daughters and the daughters of India are worth fighting for. When my babies hadnt even entered the world, their end was already being planned by my relatives who didnt want girl children. They illegally obtained information about the sex of my babies while I was still pregnant and I was pressurized to have an abortion. I wasnt going to give up without a fight. I hope for a system thats kinder to women and not just one that says it is, said Mitu, adding that it is her dearest dream to bring around the justice Ive been seeking for my children as soon as possible. Mitu hopes that foreign pressure will wake up Indias government who she says believes in speaking in front of media and harassing anybody who dares speak against them or the system. Even if I can inspire one woman to fight for herself, I would be a proud woman, she said. Mitu Khurana is alleged to be the first woman in New Delhi to file a case against her husband and in-laws under Indias 1994 Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act. Delhi courts have yet to give her the justice she demands for herself and her daughters. Contact the High Commission of India in Canada here. Contact Embassy of India in USA here. Contact India Government here. |
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| Armenian women still have average of 8 and as high as 20 abortions in lifetime by Ben Johnson Tue Dec 20, 2011 20:23 EST YEREVAN, ARMENIA, December 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The practice of sex-selective abortion has become so deeply ingrained in the former Soviet republic of Armenia - where the median number of abortions obtained by women over 40 is a staggering eight - that the nation will soon face a deficit of women, according to a United Nations health official. A new report produced by the United Nations Population Fund, the Armenian ministry of health, and the Institute of Perinatology found that 7,000 Armenian women - or 0.8 percent of all Armenian women of child-bearing age - had elected to have sex-selective abortions since 2006. Armenia has the worlds second worst ratio of boys-to-girls in the world, second only to China, according to a World Economic Forum report. The average nation has a ratio of 106 boys to 100 girls; Armenias average is 112 to 100. The study, Prevalence and Reasons of Sex-Selective Abortions in Armenia, estimated a loss of 1,400 future mothers. UNFPA Armenia Assistant Representative Garik Hayrapetyan told reporters Monday, In ten to 20 years, he said, we will face a deficit of women. He was surprised to learn that highly educated women with a comfortable salary were the most likely to choose to abort unborn female children. Dr. Vigen Guroian, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia told LifeSiteNews.com, I cannot understand why the Armenian people are committing genocide against themselves now, when theyve endured it. During the Armenian genocide (1915-1923), 1.5 million of the Ottoman Empires 2 million Armenian Christians were exterminated by Muslim Turks. Whats even more sad is that the news comes out at this time of the year, at Advent and at the time of the birth of the Lord, he said. If the Virgin Mary had been in Armenia at this time, she probably would have been encouraged to have an abortion. Dr. Guroian, who is of Armenian descent, said the debate became personal for him after the birth of his granddaughter five months ago, when he realized she may never have been born in her familys homeland. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, (PACE) passed a resolution in October stating that aborting unborn girls reinforces a climate of violence against women, and the coercion young mothers undergo constitutes a form of psychological violence. It particularly highlighted Armenias situation. However, the resolution deemed the practice justified for the prevention of serious sex-linked genetic diseases. Its author, Doris Stump, instructed, We should be careful, however, not to use prenatal sex selection as a pretext to limit legal abortion. Armenias abortion rate, although lower than it was in the 1990s and only one-third the rate of the 1980s, remains staggeringly high. The median number of abortions for women over 40 is eight, and some women have as many as 20 abortions in a lifetime. Experts attribute this to the lingering influence of the Soviet Union, when abortion became the nations primary means of birth control. Similar rates persist in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan. This is now a deeply culturally set pattern. I dont think the church could solve the problem tomorrow by speaking up, Dr. Guroian said. Ive voiced my anguish at the churchs reticence to address this in the past, he said. Perhaps it had an excuse during the period of Soviet rule, but its had no excuse for the past 20 years. A spokesperson for the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America declined to comment on this story. Representatives from the Eastern Diocese were not immediately available by deadline. However, some voices within Armenia have articulated the Christian Churchs opposition to abortion. Fr. Kyuregh Talyan, a parish priest in the Kotayk Diocese, held a press conference last month to say, A human being begins life from the moment of conception. To me, an emotionless concept like artificial termination of pregnancy is nothing more than homicide. Its widespread tolerance comes from a new religion prevailing in Europe - the religion of human rights. The conscious decision to abort unborn girls now pervades the globe. The British medical journal The Lancet estimated some 12 million sex-selection abortions had taken place in India from 1980 to 2010. The shortage of women has become so acute it has led to wife-sharing. A study of the sex imbalance in India, China, and South Korea links the absence of potential wives to increased aggression, violence, and criminal behavior among men. The Parental Non-Discrimination Act aims to end the practice in the United States. Armenian legislators have proposed a law forbidding doctors from disclosing the childs sex until after the cut-off time when abortions are forbidden under law. Like much of Europe, Armenia restricts abortions to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. However, many later abortions take place, often chemical abortions induced at home without a doctors supervision. Yet some within Armenia emphasize the real danger is not gendercide, but abortion itself. The head of the Department of Gynecology at the Armenian-American Wellness Center, Dr. Marina Voskanyan, warned, Women have to know that discontinuing any pregnancywill lead to serious health issues. An abortion is a very negative phenomenon. Dr. Vahe Ter-Minasyan, an ob-gyn in Armenia, agreed: To opt for an abortion is merely a question of ignorance. If women and their husbands knew how much damage an abortion causes to a womans health, they would never choose it. |
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| Sex-Selection Abortion in the U.S. The Myth of Choice By: Chuck Colson|Published: December 23, 2011 5:00 AM A few years ago, Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund of Columbia University were looking at data from the 2000 Census. They noticed that immigrants from China, Korea and India had fewer American-born daughters than you would expect. Whereas among native-born whites, the male-to-female ratio 1.05 to 1 was constant regardless of family size, that wasnt the case in families from these three countries. If the oldest child was a girl, then sex ratio for the second child jumped to 1.17 to 1 in favor of boys. And if the first two children were girls, the sex ratio for third children soared to amazing 1.5 boys for every 1 girl. The conclusion was inescapable: These families were practicing sex selection to ensure they had a son. As I have told you previously, this practice is common in Asia: by some estimates, there are 100 million fewer girls alive today than there should be. The combination of pre-natal testing and abortion, coupled with a strong cultural preference for sons, has created a shortage of females in Asia. Almond and Endlunds research showed that the practice accompanied immigrants to the U.S. Another study of two San Francisco-area abortion clinics found that 89 percent of the South Asian patients carrying females had an abortion during the period covered by the study. For many of the women, it wasnt their first sex-selection abortion. The reasons behind these abortions demonstrate how hollow phrases like choice and reproductive rights really are. Writing in Forbes magazine, Richard Miniter described how these women, pregnant with daughters, reported incredible pressure by in-laws and husbands to produce sons and not daughters. They were threatened with divorce or abandonment . . . beaten, choked or [even kicked in their] abdomen in the hopes of preventing a daughter, he wrote. Remember, this is happening in the Bay area, not in some Indian village. And the pressures that lead to sex-selection abortion are felt even by women with graduate or professional degrees. If there is one restriction on abortion the vast majority of Americans support, it is eliminating sex-selection abortion. Yet many of those who, in theory, should be most troubled by the targeting of unborn females are adamantly opposed to outlawing the practice. Im speaking, of course, of feminists and their allies. Ironically, they have come out in opposition to a bill, the Prenatal Discrimination Act, or PRENDA, which would ban the selected abortion of females in the U.S. They claim that PRENDA would stigmatize some women . . . from exercising their fundamental human right to make and implement decisions about their reproductive lives. Its hard to imagine a statement less-grounded in reality: The women in question are being kept from making and implementing these decisions right now. The law as it stands facilitates the coercion that forces women to abort their daughters. Its easier for a husband to pressure his wife into aborting her unborn daughter here in the U.S. than in India or China, where sex-selection abortions are illegal. Pro-abortion forces are insisting that PRENDA is a ploy. Now look folks, the fact of the matter is that the feminist cannot live with the logic consequences of their own worldview. And if you cant, what that proves is that worldview, the feminist worldview, is false. |
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| Breakpoint The reasons behind these abortions demonstrate how hollow phrases like choice and reproductive rights really are. Writing in Forbes magazine, Richard Miniter described how these women, pregnant with daughters, reported incredible pressure by in-laws and husbands to produce sons and not daughters. They were threatened with divorce or abandonment . . . beaten, choked or [even kicked in their] abdomen in the hopes of preventing a daughter, he wrote. Remember, this is happening in the Bay area, not in some Indian village. And the pressures that lead to sex-selection abortion are felt even by women with graduate or professional degrees. |
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| Taiwans crackdown on sex-selective abortion showing marginally positive results by Thaddeus Baklinski Tue Jan 31, 2012 14:55 EST TAIPEI, January 31, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A report from Taiwanese health authorities says that a crackdown on illegal sex-selective abortions prevented the deaths of nearly 1,000 female unborn babies in 2011. Taiwans health authorities began warning doctors last year that they could have their licenses revoked if they were found guilty of committing sex-selective abortions. Taiwans abortion law stipulates that a woman can undergo an induced abortion if the pregnancy adversely affects the psychological or physical health of the woman or her family life. However, sex-selective abortion is illegal. The strict measures have paid off, Lee Tsui-feng, an official at the Bureau of the Health Promotion, told AFP. Department of Health figures showed Taiwans gender ratio at birth from 2004 to 2010 was between 109 and 112 males for every 100 females, compared to a natural ratio of about 106 males to 100 females. The government agency estimated that this has resulted in up to 3,000 missing female babies each year. However, figures from 2011 showed that 108 males babies were born for every 100 female babies. Thats the same as 993 female fetuses saved last year, Lee said. The Bureau of the Health Promotion observed that the slight decrease in female feticide is a positive step toward reducing a looming massive gender imbalance, though Lee said it may take another four or five years to weed out the illegal sex-selective abortion practice entirely. Taiwan has one of the lowest total fertility rates in Asia, at 0.91 children per woman, and an astonishingly high abortion rate, estimated at about three abortions to every one live birth Dr. Lue Hung-chi, professor of paediatrics at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine, estimated that 300,000 to 500,000 abortions are carried out in Taiwan each year, while only 166,000 babies were born in 2010 on the island nation of about 23 million, according to a 2011 report by the Asia Sentinel. |
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| Albania struggling with gender disparity from sex-selective abortions The Council of Europe has revealed that sex-selective abortion is widely practiced in Albania and the result is a growing gulf between the numbers of boys and the number of girls. Recent statistics show that for every 100 Albanian girls 112 boys are born. In natural demographic growth, the number of girls usually slightly exceeds the number of boys. The Council of Europe warns that sex-selection, once associated mainly with Asian countries, has become popular in Europe, particularly in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Traditionally Albanian families have favoured boys over girls for two main reasons: the inheritance of the family name and the prospect of boys growing up to become breadwinners, a 2005 report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said. Abortion in Albania was legalized in 1995 after the fall of the communist government. It is now available on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy. The European news service Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso quotes Rubena Moisiu, the chief physician at the Kico Gliozheni abortion facility in Tirana, There are no accurate statistics, but based on our surveys made in the largest gynaecological clinic in the country, in 2010 alone there were 470 abortions, the main causes of which were economic reasons, deformities and the sex of the foetus. |
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| Pro-lifers call on Government to act after evidence of sex-selective abortions By Madeleine Teahan on Thursday, 23 February 2012 The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has said that evidence of sex-selective abortion in the UK confirms the reality of eugenics in modern British medicine and called on the Government to cut ties with private abortion providers. Investigative journalists at the Daily Telegraph secretly filmed clinicians agreeing to arrange abortions on the grounds of sex. One consultant was recorded saying; I dont ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination. Anthony Ozimic, SPUCS communication manager, told the media yesterday evening: This investigation confirms the reality of eugenics in modern British medicine, in which some innocent human beings are deemed too inconvenient to be allowed to live. Sex-selective abortion is an inevitable consequence of easy access to abortion, a situation to which the pro-abortion lobby has no convincing answer. The government needs to cut its ties to private abortion providers and to abortion rights organisations. They are complicit in sex-selective abortion domestically through their support for abortion on demand, and internationally through their complicity in Chinas population control programme. The pro-life charity Life, which offers non-directive counselling on abortion said that the revelation exposed the abuse of our abortion laws and called on the Government to take action. LIFE Spokesman Mark Bhagwandin said: This represents the culmination of years of abuse of the abortion laws in the country to the extent that the rate of abortion is one every three minutes. The Telegraph investigation clearly shows that some abortion providers feel they can not only abuse, but also blatantly break the law. The shock expressed by the Health Secretary is noted. We now look forward to that being transformed into action to put an end to the constant abuse of the abortion law and ensure that those who break it face the full force of the law. Failure to do so will send the signal to an out-of-control industry that anything goes when it comes to the termination of the unborn. He continued: The termination of girls inside the uterus because they are the wrong gender is repulsive and should be condemned in the strongest terms. Is the UK ready to be counted amongst the countries in which gender selection abortions, even though illegal, are nevertheless performed routinely? This must be the final straw. It is time to move swiftly and effectively to send a clear message that the few restrictions on abortion in the UK will not be mocked, and there is at least some protection for the unborn child whether it is a boy or a girl. Under cover reporters accompanied pregnant women to nine clinics in different parts of the country. On three occasions doctors were recorded offering to arrange a termination because the mother wanted to abort her unborn child on the grounds of sex. Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley has agreed to report the abortion clinics and doctors involved to the police and General Medical Council. In a statement, the Department of Health said: Following this mornings reports in the Telegraph, we will be speaking to the police. Criminal offences may have been committed and we will take urgent action. We will be speaking to the GMC to ask them to investigate individual clinicians and we have asked the Care Quality Commission to urgently inspect the named clinics. The Chief Medical Officer will be writing out this morning to all abortion clinics, NHS hospitals and Primary Care Trusts to remind them of their responsibilities and the requirements of the Abortion Act. |
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| Leading pro-abort defends illegal UK sex-selective abortions after undercover sting by Hilary White, Rome Correspondent Fri Feb 24, 2012 16:38 EST LONDON, February 24, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) While the revelations that British doctors are performing illegal sex-selective abortions has caused a furor in the media, abortion advocates have lost little time defending the practice. The day after the Daily Telegraph published the results of an undercover sting operation that showed the law was being routinely flouted, Marge Berer, a major player in the international abortion movement, wrote that a doctor can justify sex-selective abortion on the grounds that the womans health may be endangered by the abuse she will suffer from male relatives whose cultures practise discrimination against women and girls if she gives birth to a girl. Marge Berer Berer is the founding editor of the online magazine Reproductive Health Matters and has been the chair of the Steering Committee of the International Consortium for Medical Abortion since 2002. She contends that sex-selection can be justified by taking the womans social situation into account, and because the womans physical and mental health and well-being may be at risk, and also her existing children. The potential for abuse of a woman by her husband and family, and poor treatment of and even purposeful neglect of girl children (leading to poor development and even death), are common outcomes in Asian cultures that demand that women produce boys. Berer continues, Moreover, it is also the case that a woman may not want another baby anyway, for other valid reasons, and fetal sex may be the only acceptable excuse she can give in her family situation for seeking an abortion. She reiterates the pure abortionist ideology, saying, I believe health professionals and everyone who is pro-choice on abortion should support pro-choice doctors and women seeking abortions, whatever their reasons, even when sex selection may be involved. Berer blasted the Telegraph for what she called an unethical attack on abortionists, saying their aim was only to stigmatise abortion and women who have abortions, to frighten women and abortion providers that they are breaking the law, and to seek to restrict the law on abortion. While the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has called sex-selective abortion morally repugnant and illegal, and today police have reportedly visited the Telegraph offices, Berer pointed out that the law does not contain a specific prohibition against sex-selection. Meanwhile, pro-life advocates have condemned Britains abortion law, the provisions of which are regularly interpreted by doctors to allow abortion on nearly any justification, filed under the sweeping grounds of the womans mental or physical health. The British governments own statistics show that 185,000 of the of the UKs 200,000 annual abortions, 92 percent, are granted under the mental health grounds, but a review by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC) published in December last year, showed that abortion does not improve mental health outcomes for women with unplanned pregnancies. In fact, the review found that in some circumstances the risk of serious mental health issues increases after abortion. Dr. Peter Saunders, head of the Christian Medical Fellowship, contends that this means that the great majority of Britains abortions are being carried out illegally. Saunders wrote today that the Telegraphs revelations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to illegal abortions. By forcefully making the point that some abortions (ie. for sex selection) are illegal [Health Secretary Lansley] has already opened the question as to where exactly the line should be drawn. Having started asking questions, Mr. Lansley may now find it very difficult to stop, because in reality sex selection abortions are actually just the tip of a large iceberg of illegal activity. The Abortion Act 1967 does not specify any particular circumstance under which it is illegal to have an abortion. The Act is worded entirely in the negative, listing only those circumstances under which an offense has not been committed. This means that it does not give any provision for prohibiting abortions under specific circumstances, including for reasons of sex selection. In addition, it provides for no penalty for coercion of abortion or if the woman is under age, both recognized by both social workers and police as ongoing problems in Britains Asian community. The law requires two doctors to sign off for each abortion, but specifies that the requirement can be waived if one physician is of the opinion, formed in good faith, that the termination is immediately necessary to save the life or to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. In 2007 Dr. Vincent Argent, the former medical director of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, gave evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology committee, saying that there is widespread abuse around signing of abortion permission forms. He said he had personally witnessed doctors signing batches of forms before patients are even seen for consultation. He said that doctors commonly sign the forms with no knowledge of the particular patient and without reading the notes, without seeing or examining the patients and even signing after the abortion has been completed. Forms are regularly faxed to other locations for signature and in some cases, abortion facilities use signature stamps without any consultation with the doctor. At that time, the Labour governments Health Secretary did nothing about these allegations. |
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| ‘Create the family you want: Boy or Girl’: Sex selection advertized in Canadian newspapers by Peter Baklinski Thu Apr 19, 2012 14:43 EST VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 19, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the wake of a new study that indicates that unborn girls are being targeted for abortion by certain immigrant groups in Canada, evidence has surfaced that sex selective in vitro fertilization (IVF) is being regularly advertised in Canadian news papers.  A fertility clinic in Washington state has been targeting Indo-Canadians in British Columbia with an ad encouraging them to “create the family you want: Boy or Girl.” The ad features a picture of an ethnic boy and girl attired in traditional Indian garb. A website address in the ad directs parents interested in sex-selection to the Washington Center for Reproductive Medicine where they learn that preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the clinic’s preferred method for “selecting an embryo of known gender facilitating family balancing”. Sabrina Atwal, project director for the Indo-Canadian Women’s Association in Edmonton said she was “appalled” by the ad and that it was indicative of the devaluation faced by women and girls in Indo-Canadian communities. “Girls are fighting for their lives before they’re even born,” she said. According to the clinic’s explanation of the sex selection process, after the artificial joining of numerous sperms and eggs, the clinic performs biopsies on the newly created human beings to identify the ones the bear XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes. With the PGD method, the clinic “virtually guarantee[s] successful gender selection.” In IVF embryos that are not implanted are typically destroyed or frozen for later use, or scientific research. In an op-ed that appeared yesterday in the National Post, Kelly McParland chided Canadians who might be appalled by current practices such as sex selection in what he called the country’s “free-for-all baby market”. With no law on abortion in the country, McParland pointed out that the sex selection clinic would be “perfectly justified” in going even further. “Why not be specific, with a two-for-one special on male twins? Crude? You bet. Barbaric? Some would say that, but certainly not feminists, who support sex selection as another legitimate choice for women to make, and which is none of our business.” McParland pointed out the colossal logical conundrum faced by pro-abortion feminists who have built an empire on the ideology of ‘abortion on demand for any reason’ and who are now even willing to sacrifice their own sisters’ blood by defending sex selection for the sake of holding fast to their ideology. “Sex selection … puts feminists in the odd position of defending the right of women to decide against female babies on the basis that females aren’t as valuable or desirable as males.” “How much more discriminatory can you get than advocating the inherent value of one sex over the other?” “Don’t ask me, ask the feminists. It’s their position, not mine,” concludes McParland. |
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| Dictators and Baby Girls The Fruits of a False Worldview By: Eric Metaxas|Published: May 30, 2012 8:01 AM Sometimes it takes a comedian to shock us with the truth -- especially when it comes to abortion. Ill explain, next on BreakPoint. In the newly released film, The Dictator, the title character is played by shock comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. In one scene, the dictator is informed by his wife that she is pregnant; to which he replies: Are you having a boy or an abortion? Yikes! While I do not plan to see the film myself and dont recommend that you do it is an example of how humor allows us to broach subjects we would otherwise ignore: In this case, what has been called a global war on baby girls. Thats how a recent article in The New Atlantis characterizes what Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute calls, an ominous and entirely new form of gender discrimination. This discrimination combines surgical abortion [and the] . . . information gained through prenatal gender determination. Unlike Sacha Baron Cohens fictional Dictator, the practitioners of this discrimination arent content to simply ask whether its a boy or a girl technologies like amniocentesis leave nothing to chance. If its a boy, the pregnancy virtually always goes to term. If not, abortion is often the result. As Eberstadt tells us, the practice has become . . . ruthlessly routine in many societies around the world. So much so, that in these societies, gender balances have become horribly skewed. The best-known example is China, where the infamous one child policy and the cultural preference for boys have resulted in a ratio of approximately 120 boys for every 100 girls. But that may understate the imbalance: There are many places in China where the ratio exceeds 150 boys for every 100 girls. And it isnt only China. Sex ratios are similarly skewed in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and India. It is estimated that there are 160 million missing Asian women. That's missing as in never born. The missing women arent the only victims of this lethal discrimination. Last summer, Chuck Colson told BreakPoint listeners about the link between sex-selection abortion and the increased demand for sex workers in India. This demand is being met, in part, by selling girls from neighboring Nepal into slavery and prostitution. It isnt only India. A 2007 State Department report drew a link between bride kidnapping and the Chinese sex-ratio imbalance. A 2008 New Republic article linked the sex-ratio imbalance to crime sprees in Chinese cities by hopeless volatile men. Given the societal devastation wrought by this discrimination, youd hope that people would re-think the impact of abortion-on-demand. But you would hope in vain. When Ross Douthat of the New York Times noted the obvious connection between the missing women and abortion, the author of the aforementioned New Republic article, Mara Hvistendahl, took umbrage. She insisted that abortion-on-demand was unrelated to the issue. Chuck called this dust-up a clear example of the blinding power of a false worldview in this case the unsustainable worldview that sees abortion as an absolute, fundamental womans right. Our culture refuses to acknowledge that in the name of female empowerment, millions of future women are being eliminated. Which puts Sacha Baron-Cohens cinematic dictator, like other comic figures before him, in the role of truth-teller. And speaking of worldview, be sure to check out the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview at ColsonCenter.org. We have all kinds of great worldview resources articles, blogs, newsletters, books for you, your small group, and your church. |
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| Sex-Selective Abortion: A Beautiful Dilemma On May 30, 2012 | By Andrew Haines Sometimes you end up catching a tiger by the tail. It seems thats what happens when abortion advocates try to speak on the topic of sex-selective terminations. Terminations, after all, seems the right word to use, since it hits on so many of the relevant features of the issue. Of course, there are terminations of pregnancy. But in the same breath, there are general, sex-based terminationsprofessional, social, etc.that are clearly discriminatory, and that ought to be progressed beyond. Sex-selective terminations are, on the one hand, archaic and misogynistic, and on the other a legitimate exercise of ones God-given right to kill ones own offspring. Thats why Im willing to admit that todays congressional vote on PRENDAthe Prenatal Nondiscrimination Actprovides such a beautiful dilemma. After all, rants about PRENDA offer a field day to anyone thoughtful enough to consider that 1) being wise isnt (usually) about how loud you yell, and 2) sexual revolution style feminism is bunk. Im not going to mine out all the bilge for you. But this manifesto at HuffPo by the feminist triumvirate (sorry, I couldnt resist) of Miriam Yeung, Jessica Gonzles-Rojas, and Eleanor Hinton Hoytt is a great jumping-off point. A few gems for your immediate review:
Of course,
But,
So much, I guess, for that undying commitment to fight discrimination in all its forms. And lest you walk away believing that I called the PRENDA struggle beautiful out of mere fancifulness: I didnt. All the doublespeak and finger pointing, in this particular case, gives a clear glimpse into the breakdown of truth, consistency, and common sense. Its a great starting point for significant analysis and humane reactions. Its a rare window for us, who believe in things like goodness and meaning, to offer a perspective that sheds light on the darkness of sexual narcissism. In a word, it really is a beautiful dilemma, because it opens space for the possibility of real progress. |
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| Breaking News: Killing Girls A-Ok with B.O. and his democrat cronies May 31, 2012 By The Crescat Im sorry Mr. President, who exactly again is waging a war on women? Just so we are clear; your administration is against gender discrimination as long it doesnt prevent monies from flowing to your bedfellow, Planned Parenthood. I wonder, would the bill pass if it proposed to ban abortions based on race (something that was actually in an early form of this bill)? Are you not the least bit worried, Mr. Barry, that recent polls show a growing trend of voting people identifying as pro-life and internationally girl infanticide is considered evil. I know history isnt your strong point *cough Polish death camps* but surely you remember 1995? Oh, wait. You were probably high, or busy eating dog. Whatever. During that UN Conference a platform was adopted that established eradicating violence against the girl child as global priority and it sought to enact and enforce legislation protecting girls from all forms of violence, including female infanticide and prenatal sex selection. You know who bans sex-selective abortions, there Barry? Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, India and Vietnam. Wait, what? China, yes, even flipping baby hating China has officially outlawed the practice. In other news: ALL mainstream media news outlets have full coverage of, who else, John Kerry and . squirrel! |
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| Huge gender imbalance prompts Azerbaijani govt to consider abortion ban by Thaddeus Baklinski Fri Jul 20, 2012 13:57 EST BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A senior Azerbaijani official has proposed a ban on abortion in the South Caucasus nation, calling the countys widespread practice of sex-selective abortion savagery and murder, according to RIA Novosti. In many countries of the world, abortion is regarded as murdering a human being. The destruction of unborn infants in their mothers wombs is not justified on humanitarian or religious grounds, says Hadi Rajabli, chairman of the Azerbaijani parliaments social policy committee and a member of the governing Yeni Azerbaijan party. We therefore believe that such a ban could be introduced in Azerbaijan. Hadi Rajabli, a senior official in the Azerbaijani government, is proposing a ban on abortion in the Muslim country. The termination of a child because of its gender can lead to serious consequences, he added. This is murder which could not be justified from any point of view. Approximately 112 boys are born for every 100 girls in Azerbaijan, according to statistics from Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The natural sex ratio at birth is about 105 boys for every 100 girls. Rajablis proposal follows a similar one in neighbouring Turkey, when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed reducing the limit on abortions to the first four to six weeks of pregnancy, from the current 10 weeks. Critics have complained the measure would virtually eliminate surgical abortions in the country. Erdogan called abortion murder and linked it to an international population control agenda. The Turkish government subsequently abandoned the plan in the wake of demonstrations, however. Turkey and Azerbaijan are both secular Muslim states that share strong cultural ties. According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, Azerbaijan has among the highest abortion rates in the world. Their surveys indicate that women on average will have close to three abortions each in their lifetimes. Abortion in Azerbaijan has been legal during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy since 1955. But according to UN documentation, in 1982 the Azerbaijani government issued a decree allowing abortions for health reasons to be performed through the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy. The government continued to extend the circumstances under which legal abortions were available, and on 31 December 1987 it issued another decree setting out a broad range of non-medical indications for abortions performed on request through the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy. In the end, the order provided that, with the approval of a commission, an abortion could performed on demand on any grounds. The Azerbaijani parliament, the Milli Mejlis, will table the abortion ban in its fall session, according to the RIA Novosti report. |
