"China's Missing Girls"
Sixteen million girls are missing in China. And now we know what happened to them: They were aborted because they weren’t boys.
It’s a chilling story.
What do you make of this if you’re a feminist who believes that a woman always has a right to choose, and that an abortion is a morally insignificant act because the fetus is not rightly understood to be a human life? I’m asking earnestly. The rise of ultrasounds and selective abortion in the third world strikes me as an issue with which pro-choice feminists must grapple — it is arguably the most dire threat to women and their place in society in the world today.
your point is well taken, but do note that social mores change quickly:
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/12/sex-ratio-preferences.php
— razib · Apr 17, 07:16 AM · #
I’m not sure what, exactly, this issue has to do with feminism over any other ‘isms.
As razib noted, a world in which China, India, et. al. had mainstream values closer to those espoused by Western feminists would have less problems with selective-gender abortion.
— talboito · Apr 17, 08:05 AM · #
What do you make of this if you’re a feminist who believes that a woman always has a right to choose, and that an abortion is a morally insignificant act because the fetus is not rightly understood to be a human life? I’m asking earnestly.
Can you name a single feminist who believes that a woman always has a right to choose and that abortion is a morally insignificant act?
Don’t you know anyone who considers him/herself a feminist and can make an argument that the concept of choice itself depends on a political regime that defends the individual civil liberties of all its citizens?
I’m asking earnestly.
— Pudentilla · Apr 17, 10:37 AM · #
The answer that makes the most sense to me is that rights can be misused. As with other rights, misuse of reproductive rights should be met with social sanction and not legal sanction (and that generally speaking social sanctions should be used with care and empathy). Similarly, feminist groups that support family planning clinics abroad may choose not to offer ultrasound information about the sex of the fetus.
— Greg Sanders · Apr 17, 12:49 PM · #
Can you name a single feminist who believes that a woman always has a right to choose and that abortion is a morally insignificant act?
Well, here’s one, it appears. Though I guess the person who says that every abortion is a blessing is not calling it morally insignificant, but morally admirable.
— Alan Jacobs · Apr 17, 01:15 PM · #
It’s also worth noting that “Roe” of Roe v. Wade argued that “the woman’s right is absolute and that she is entitled to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses.” The court did not agree, but it’s scarcely an uncommon view.
— Alan Jacobs · Apr 17, 01:21 PM · #
Meh.
Cultural evolution will force an adaptation. Think Heinleins The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Perhaps line-marriages, or polyandry…….perhaps a war to trim the excess young male population…or mail order brides from America!
How hilarious if line-marriage became culturally stylish and emulated in America!
Dreher would bust a gut.
;)
hehe.
— matoko_chan · Apr 17, 01:46 PM · #
Before there were medical abortions in China, there was miscarriage induced by poisoning and other self-harm, abandonment, and infanticide (and those persist even now, and would surely persist even if efforts were made to make medical abortion unavailable). You don’t have to be an abortion rights zealot to see that the availability of medical abortion isn’t the salient issue here.
— alkali · Apr 17, 02:26 PM · #
“It’s also worth noting that “Roe” of Roe v. Wade argued that “the woman’s right is absolute and that she is entitled to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses.” The court did not agree, but it’s scarcely an uncommon view.”
I’m leery of equating anyone’s legal strategy with their ethical or moral beliefs.
— Tony Comstock · Apr 17, 02:55 PM · #
My girlfriend is entering obstetrics and will provide abortions and deciding when to refuse an abortion is a difficult thing. But it’s one providers do all the time. She currently provides after-care in an abortion clinic and they refuse women who don’t appear emotionally stable, have health risks and certain doctors won’t do things like fetal reduction (aborting one twin or one triplet). Providers must make a choice and it’s an imperfect science. But the fact that you refuse one particular abortion doesn’t negate, in her mind, a woman’s basic right to the procedure.
Also, you provide the caveat “arguably” but I do not think this is “the most dire threat to women and their place in society in the world today”. That would still be a woeful lack of women’s education and their recognition as full members in society. Address that and things like sex-selective abortion would diminish (along with many other harmful effects), IMO.
— Philacat · Apr 17, 02:55 PM · #
All of those men want at least one woman. Doesn’t this elevate the place of women in Chinese society by increasing their bargaining power?
— bcg · Apr 17, 03:00 PM · #
Seriously?
“What do you make of this if you’re a feminist…”
I’m pretty sure you can just stop right there. If you are a feminist you should believe in the intrinsic worth and equality of women in society. So the fact that millions of female fetuses are being aborted because females aren’t worth as much is wrong. And thus you should be working toward equality, which will negate the huge pressure to sex select for societal advantage.
— ricky · Apr 17, 06:05 PM · #
Hmm. If I were a feminist, my first objection to the Chinese situation would be that they restrict reproductive freedom by allowing only one child (except for some unusual exceptions). And were it not for the one-child policy, the gender-selected abortions would not be nearly so prevalent.
— Kevin B. O'Reilly · Apr 18, 02:42 AM · #
Just imagine….the skin covering a womans belly…and approximately 3 to 3 inches inward toward the belly a baby whether 24 hours where life began to 9 months along….where the unborn baby is fully formed and ready for like we can legally or illegaly snap that life away. What a decision to make. If your really think of it that way what would you do? Whata should you do? Just a thought.
— slay · Apr 20, 07:19 AM · #