That's the title of the London Daily Mail article about how sex-selection abortions have eliminated over 10 million girls in the last 20 years, with projections that it could become upwards of 1 million a year.
The article explores the various roots of this phenomenon, how it has prospered despite the 1994 law banning such a practice, and some of the emerging consequences it has had on the society.
I agree with the generalized feminists in the article that Indian society does need to value women more highly, because few other solutions will turn this trend around. It would be a tragedy, though, if demographic crisis were the factor that led to the change in society. What I mean is, if sex-selection abortions were to continue, eventually the point will be reached where India's demographics are simply untenable. Imagine a population ratio of 50 or 100:1 of men to women. Reaching such a place might cause distinct changes in India's culture, but not without consequences for the country.
Still, I can't help but wonder if the feminists would be willing to let go of abortion to help solve this problem. Women were killing their daughters before abortion, but to say that abortion didn't exacerbate this would be dishonest.
Or will anyone on the "pro-choice" side of the fence look openly at such things? America has its own demographics/abortion problems, but I've yet to see any pro-choice writer address it.
Hat tip: Dr. Al Mohler
4 comments:
I'm pro-choice and I don't see how this problem in India is caused at all by the allowance of abortions. There are choices in the world and it is a matter of what you do with those choices that can be the problem, not the choice itself. For example--in America we are allowed to own guns and gun deaths (accidental and not) happen. Is it because we have a choice of owning a gun? No, it is the way that person dealt with their choice. In the same respect, we have a choice to abort children. Whether it is done because the mother will not be able to take care of it, or will not love it, or it would eventually end up in the downward spiral that is governmental housing or because a country deems a specific sex "unworthy" is the reverberations of the choice. Speaking as a woman, I am going to say that it is my body and I can do what I want--It is my choice to bring a baby into the world or not, and I feel that no one else has the right to tell me otherwise, unless they're willing to raise the child that I won't.
Same old argument. Blah blah blah, my body, my choice, blah blah blah.
And, I hate to be a bother, but accidental gun deaths would be all but impossible if a person did not own a gun.
Now, the same cannot be said of abortion in India in this case, because before abortion women were still killing their children in other manners.
However, you can't deny that abortion has acted as a catalyst here, making more convenient and socially acceptable a doubly atrocious act.
One of the arguments often cited is that abortion is necessary because it "empowers" women, it gives them equality with men, it is necessary for women. Abortion is the ultimate "pro-woman" act. Such rhetoric falls flat in a situation like this, where abortion is used specifically to keep women down.
Or is it okay that women make this choice?
Same old argument. Blah blah blah, my body, my choice, blah blah blah.
ok, this wasn't even why i wanted to post in the first place. but this statement has left me so angry, i'm shaking. pregnancy can be a choice, but it can be something that is forced upon a female. is that EVER forced upon a male? have you or will you EVER be in a situation where your body is being used like that without your consent? now, i'm not even talking about women who have been careless...i have opinions on that, but i don't want to drift too far away from the point...i'm talking about women who have been raped, who have had sex forced on them, who have accidentally become pregnant and in a life-threatening situation. have you ever met a woman who is carrying her rapist's baby? do you know what kind of mental anguish that can bring about? how about a woman who will be killed if she goes home and her family finds out about her baby? when, as a man, would you ever have to face that situation??? you can roll your eyes at women trying to get control over their bodies again, but until you have lost the control over yours, i don't see how you have any right to talk.
as far as your gun comment, do you believe that we should reverse the second amendment, then? no guns for anyone?
also - don't you think women will resort to/be forced to resort to back-alley abortions if safe ones are denied? do you really think that in a society where women are undervalued, if the father wants the pregnancy terminated because it is female, the lack of legal abortions will stop him from getting that done???
gah.
Same old argument. Blah blah blah, my body, my choice, blah blah blah.
ok, this wasn't even why i wanted to post in the first place. but this statement has left me so angry, i'm shaking. pregnancy can be a choice, but it can be something that is forced upon a female. is that EVER forced upon a male? have you or will you EVER be in a situation where your body is being used like that without your consent? now, i'm not even talking about women who have been careless...i have opinions on that, but i don't want to drift too far away from the point...i'm talking about women who have been raped, who have had sex forced on them, who have accidentally become pregnant and in a life-threatening situation. have you ever met a woman who is carrying her rapist's baby? do you know what kind of mental anguish that can bring about? how about a woman who will be killed if she goes home and her family finds out about her baby? when, as a man, would you ever have to face that situation??? you can roll your eyes at women trying to get control over their bodies again, but until you have lost the control over yours, i don't see how you have any right to talk.
as far as your gun comment, do you believe that we should reverse the second amendment, then? no guns for anyone?
also - don't you think women will resort to/be forced to resort to back-alley abortions if safe ones are denied? do you really think that in a society where women are undervalued, if the father wants the pregnancy terminated because it is female, the lack of legal abortions will stop him from getting that done???
gah.
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