Talk about the law of unintended consequences. In countries where a woman has a virtually unfettered right to choose abortion, the result is that women overwhelmingly choose to abort female fetuses.
A just published study, reported in the NY Times, of Chinese population growth ties a pending imbalance in male-female population to high rates of abortion, in part as a reaction to China’s one child policy, which gives parents one shot at getting a child of their preferred gender. And most prefer male offspring:
In 2005 males under the age of 20 exceeded females by more than 32 million in China, and more than 1.1 million excess births of boys occurred. China will see very high and steadily worsening sex ratios in the reproductive age group over the next two decades.
The authors of the study suggest stricter enforcement of laws prohibiting sex-selective abortion, but such laws are very hard to enforce. India has had the same problem:
The consequences of sex-selective abortion are evident in the two largest countries in the world, China and India, where preference for sons is strong. In these countries, which together contain nearly two out of every five people in the world today, the use of prenatal ultrasound scanning to abort female fetuses has led to skewed sex ratios at birth in favor of boys and a growing gender gap.
Attempts to impose sex-selective abortion restrictions in the U.S. have met with opposition. In part this opposition is based on constitutional principles (per Roe v. Wade), but may also be based on the fact that there is evidence that there is no male-gender preference in the U.S. If government could question the motive of a woman in seeking an abortion, and deny access based on that motive, then the right to abortion would be restricted.
Supporters of unrestricted abortion, such as the Center for Reproductive Rights, support China’s efforts to ban sex-selective abortions, based on principles of non-discrimination against women. But it seems as if the CRR and other pro-choice groups are trying to have it both ways. If a woman has a right to choose, then who is the CRR or the government to decide what is the right choice? Or is this Western hypocrisy at its worst, giving women in wealthy Western countries choices of which women in poorer countries are deprived?
The pro-choice movement, which paints anyone who even questions the practice as anti-woman’s rights, has tied itself into a knot. And it has to live with the moral consequences of fewer women coming into being in the name of women’s rights.
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UPDATE: This post has received a reaction which is all too typical: Name calling masquerading as argument. Not only does one commenter label me a misogynist, but a crazed post titled “Idiots With Degrees” reveals the paucity of reason behind the furious reaction.
Stripped of the name calling, the argument goes like this (my paraphrasing): 60% of the world’s population lives under “liberal” abortion law, and we do not see the Chinese phenomenon repeated elsewhere, except in India. In China (and India), women have little say in whether they have abortions. Therefore, it is not abortion policy which is the problem, only the culture.
First, this argument is lacking factual basis. As the author admits, “[w]e do not know what percentage of Chinese women freely choose sex-selective abortions, compared to those who are not given a choice by their husbands and culture to abort girls.” In other words, I know which conclusion I want to reach, so I’ll assume facts and engage in cultural stereotyping (including reference to the pre-revolutionary practice of foot binding) to justify the conclusion.
Next, the argument that 60% of the world’s population lives under liberal abortion laws actually proves a point which contradicts the author. India and China combined account for roughly 37% of the world’s population, which means that almost two-thirds of the 60% are accounted for by populations where sex-selective abortion is prevalent; when you add in other south and east-Asian nations where sex-selective abortion is prevalent, the percentage is higher. So, the facts actually show that in the vast majority of the world’s population which lives under liberal abortion laws, sex-selective abortion is prevalent.
And we don’t really know if the practice is limited to Asia; we only know that sex-selection is a problem in Asia because Asian cultures readily admit to male-preference. There is limited data on the United States, because as one author notes, Americans tend not to admit to sex-selection. What data is available suggests a continuance of male-favored sex selection in the U.S.-born children of Asian immigrants, which is inconsistent with the notion of sex selection being forced on women in countries such as China and India.
Nor can the author’s other crutch, China’s one-child policy, offer her much support. While the one-child policy contributes to the problem in China, in India and Korea there is no one-child policy, and sex-selection is a problem. In India, the practice of sex selection appears to be fueled by increases in the availability of ultra-sound and other technologies which make sex selection easier.
This statistical argument should not take away from the moral issue, which is sex-selective abortion, regardless of whether there is a gender-bias. Some pro-choice advocates have grappled with this ethical dilemma in a reasoned manner.
But of course, logic never was the point of the rant, so the author does not even touch on the dilemma facing pro-choice advocates in the face of the fact of sex-selective abortion. If abortion is a woman’s right, then does anyone — here or abroad — have the right to impose sex-selection restrictions regardless of culture. And if not, how does society live with the problem of sex-selective abortion in general, and the specific consequence that a woman’s right to choose results in fewer women.
I’m sure there will be more rational debate to follow.
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UPDATE No. 2: I was right. Here is more rational debate:
Now, the individual who wrote this has a law degree. Not only does he have a law degree, but he teaches law at Cornell University. Cornell University! And yet he does not know that the aborting of female fetuses is the result of China’s one-child-per-couple policy combined with the extremely low status of females in China. When you are only allowed one child, and the societal value of a girl child is close to zero, then you are creating a powerful preference for that one child to be a boy — to the point where many are willing to abort female fetuses or kill newborn female infants. Under circumstances like these, there is little to no connection between legality and choice with regard to abortion in China. A coerced choice is no choice at all.
If a Cornell University law professor is so blinded by ideological fanaticism that he cannot grasp this, one cannot expect anything different from ideological fanatics who don’t have law degrees.
If the aborting of female fetuses in disproportionate numbers primarily is a reaction to China’s one-child policy, then explain India, Korea, and other countries which do not have one-child policy. And if the other factor is societal disdain for the status of females, then explain the practice among the U.S.-born children of Asian immigrants who were born, raised, and at the time lived in the U.S. There may be cultural factors at work, but those cultures constitute a large percentage of the world’s population.
And neither author/attacker has addressed the issue of whether sex-selected abortion should be permitted. If the answer is yes, then don’t complain about China and India. And live with the natural consequences of your view. If the answer is no, then don’t impose that solution solely on other cultures. I believe that’s called cultural imperialism, and it is frowned upon by the left (and the Obama administration) in every other context.
I guess in the internet age, reliance on facts and the use of reason constitutes ideological fanaticism. At least when you disagree with prevailing liberal wisdom.
UPDATE No. 3: One of the commenters (who is also a blogger) to the preceding linked post states as follows:
When an educated right winger falsely asserts about China, a country that forces abortion after the first child, that China has “a virtually unfettered right to choose abortion[,]” that person is no longer engaging in an honest argument.
While courtesy might demand acceptance that the person making the false assertion actually believes the lie, that courtesy is often what the right winger is relying on to further their falsehoods.
Again , a little reasoned thought debunks the commenter’s vitriol. While it is true that China’s one child policy forces (under penalties) parents to abort the second child, the policy does not require that parents abort the first child. So while the one-child policy magnifies the problem of sex-selective abortion by forcing parents to exercise that selectivity the first time, there is no reason to think that sex-selective abortion is a function of the one-child policy. India, Korea and other Asian nations are the proof. And given the apparent preference for male offspring, one can only imagine the increased frequency of sex-selective abortion if the first born child were female.
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