News and Commentary on Politics, Media and Culture

Talk about abortion to a liberal and they are likely to get angry, recanting second hand stories from generations past where women would get dangerous and illegal back alley abortions. It’s a woman’s right to chose and not a child’s right to exist that matters.

Bring up some of the real costs of the procedure and the conversation quickly turns back to scare mongering rhetoric.

Thus it is no surprise that I didn’t read about the terrible effect abortion has had in countries such as India where babies are routinely aborted after sex determination tests have indicated the child as being female.

Feticide means 7,000 fewer girls a day in India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Seven thousand fewer girls are born in India each day than the global average would suggest, largely because female fetuses are aborted after sex determination tests, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

The problem of female feticide has significantly worsened since 1991, UNICEF said at the India launch of its “State of the World’s Children 2007″ report.

Out of 71,000 children born every day in India, just 31,000 are girls — giving a sex ratio of 882 girls to 1,000 boys.

But the global sex ratio — which is 954 girls to 1,000 boys — suggests that 38,000 girls should be born in India every day.

Don’t get me wrong, readers of the New York Times are concerned about feticide. It’s just that their concern is focused on preventing a fetus from being classified as a legal person – just in case a person damages the life of the unborn child. It is good to know that they have their priorities in order.

The following blurb comes to us from a concerned teacher (no surprise there). Of course she couldn’t have considered that feticide would be a topic again some 8 years later.

Fetal Protection Law Is Threat to Women

To the Editor:

A May 24 Associated Press news item reports that on July 1 South Dakota will become ”the first state to allow judges to order pregnant women who drink into alcoholism treatment.” Wisconsin has also passed legislation allowing pregnant women who drink or use drugs to be detained until they give birth. The Legislature sent this bill to Gov. Tommy G. Thompson along with a feticide bill mandating life imprisonment for intentionally causing the death of a fetus.

Defining drinking during pregnancy as child abuse erects a police state for pregnant women, who can be locked up for reasons no one else can. Drinking alcohol, if ill advised, is nonetheless legal.

By defining fetuses as legal persons in more and more contexts, states move closer to their goal of outlawing abortion.

RACHEL ROTH
Northampton, Mass., May 25, 1998

The writer is a lecturer in government at Smith College.

But wait, we have laws designed to protect the unborn. Well yes. Just as in India where sex determination tests are illegal. Unfortunately where there is a will there is a way. So even though there is a law against the practice there is a prevailing attitude that it is acceptable – and the practice is not just limited to India.

Despite laws banning sex determination tests, female feticide is common in much of India, where families view boys as being a better asset than girls.

“Modern diagnostic techniques for monitoring the health of a fetus, such as amniocentesis and ultrasound, have made it possible to ascertain sex in the earliest phase of gestation,” the report stated.

“In countries where there is a strong preference for sons, these newer, sophisticated technologies can be misused, facilitating female feticide.”

Social activists say local authorities have been slow to implement legislation that has been in force since 1996. There has been only one conviction from hundreds of cases lodged under the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT).

UNICEF says India is one of the few countries worldwide with an adverse child sex ratio in favor of boys.

In 80 percent of India’s districts, U.N. officials say the situation is getting worse. For example in 14 districts across the northern states of Haryana and Punjab, there are even fewer than 800 girls per 1,000 boys.

After birth, discrimination continues against girls in India, UNICEF said, limiting their access to nutrition, healthcare, education and maternal care.

Only 67.7 percent of females between the ages of 15 to 24 are literate in India, compared to 84.2 percent of males, and against 98.5 percent of women of the same age group in China.

Around 45 percent of Indian women are still being forced into marriage before the age of 18 in violation of the law.

That in turn contributes to high rates of maternal mortality, with one woman dying every seven minutes in India from a pregnancy related cause.

“Premature pregnancy and motherhood are an inevitable consequence of child marriage,” the report said. “Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in their twenties.”

That’s liberalism for you. Never an ideology to consider the downside of attitudes that tend to the free spirit. But hey, don’t judge, live life, be happy and kick the can down the road for others to deal with.

See Also, Michelle Malkin on NY Times Abortion Agenda Exposed

 Send this post a Friend  

1 Comment »

Trackback URI | Comments RSS