WorldNetDaily reported today on India's high abortion rates when the unborn baby is a girl.
By conservative estimates, sex-selective abortion in India accounts for the termination of about 10 million females over the past 20 years.
"This is the world's biggest genocide ever," Chetan Sharma, a campaigner against female feticide, told the Daily Mail of London.
India's 2001 census shows a drop in the number of girls 6-years-old and under per 1,000 boys, to 927, compared to 962 in 1981.
Even the 1981 figure is disturbing. In normal populations, there are usually slightly more girls born each year than boys. For the "starting" number to be 962 girls for 1,000 boys, it indicates that the killing of girls was already a problem.
The problem of undervaluing women is an old one. In the 19th century, British leaders tried to eradicate female infanticide. Female feticide, however, is a new phenomenon brought about by advances in technology along with liberal attitudes toward abortion, which was legalized in India in 1971.
It doesn't really matter to me whether these families kill their girls before or after they're born. It matters that they do it at all.
Generally, in Indian society, woman who produce only daughters are pitied, in some cases abused and in many cases regarded as betrayers.
A woman who had nine abortions of females said it's important to have a son because of the family's big business.
It's not just the assets of having a son that motivate feticide – carrying on the family name or business and taking care of elderly parents. The practice of providing a dowry to the grooms' family creates an enormous financial burden on parents who have a daughter.
Most of the focus on infanticide and abortions of girls has been on China, whose one-child policy has led to so many abortions, it's expected an estimated one million Chinese men won't be able to find a wife.
Now we need to add India to the list. The problems caused by large numbers of bachelors are bigger than just the lack of grandchildren. Anger and resentment can fuel violence. And once it does, it's hard to know where (or if) the violence will stop.
But how do you change the customs and expectations of centuries? Even communist China hasn't managed that one.
India was better off before they accepted abortion. Not completely, but enough to notice. And yet the American Left, along with the UN, is pushing abortion to the world as a solution. The Final Solution, perhaps.
2 comments:
This is such a sad and truly inconceivable thing to me. I can't imagine seeing the ultrasound of my little girl and thinking that she was somehow unworthy of life simply because of her sex. Do you suppose that any of these mothers stop to consider that they would not have been afforded the gift of life if their mothers had thought the same way? Or do you suppose that these pregnant women are so miserable in the anti-women culture that they think they might be sparing their little girls a life of sorrow? I have to wonder.
Regardless, the problem is made worse (as most are) when the liberals get involved and start pushing their morality on others.
Something else that stood out to me was your quote, "The problems caused by large numbers of bachelors are bigger than just the lack of grandchildren. Anger and resentment can fuel violence." I think the lack of women to marry, both in India and China will lead to a huge problem with pornography, which of course leads to violence. I believe it's already becoming a problem.
I wonder sometimes how far behind America is in this trend. It's a terrifying thought.
Christina,
I've heard that in China, they're importing women from neighboring countries to be wives for the men who can't get one. This just encourages countries like Thailand to continue or step up their trafficking of women.
The ripples of "good intentions," like preventing overpopulation, just keep on spreading.
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