nw-20100306a

You are here: Home > Literature > Online Literature > News Watch > 2010 > nw-20100306a

News Watch 2010

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Massive Increase in Abortions

of Female Fetuses In Asia

By Steve Thompson, Midnight in America

Last month I reported a story about late late term abortions being on the rise in the Netherlands due to the use of ultrasound, and how many mothers are using that to 'select' which babies are to live. In that article I pointed out that in China it is common practice to have an abortion if it is known that the baby will be a female.

New information has recently surfaced that shows that in Asia this problem is much greater than was previously known, with China and India being the front-runners, so-to-speak. The average ratio of of birth of boys to girls has climbed from 108/100 to 120/100 since 1980. In rural areas the ratio is higher and in some areas it even reaches 130/100.

What contributes to this increasing rate is abortion and technology. As previously stated, ultrasound provides the information that is used to determined whether or not a baby is to live. In the cultures of this part of the world, a male child is seen as much more desirable, for a number of reasons which I will not cover at this point. In addition, in those countries that do not have a limit of the number of children in a family, there is a trend to have smaller families. If a daughter is born first into one of these families, it is not so critical. But, the second or third child must be male in the minds of most. Therefore, the boy-girl ratio for second and third born children is even greater, sometimes reaching higher than 200/100.

There is more to add to this horrible story. Other factors contribute to the overall male to female population ratio. Besides being aborted, women are killed more, suffer more suicides (often because of the abortions they are forced to have), and they are 'neglected to death'. The life of a woman in many parts of the world is not as valuable as that of a man. A new term has arisen because of this. It is called 'Gendercide'.

The full story of this "worldwide war on baby girls" can be found on the website The Economist and can be read by clicking here. I will warn that is is a disturbing story to read.