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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Sex-selective abortions

16 replies

welshgendercrit · 19/12/2018 15:03

An excellent, but deeply disturbing article by Raquel Rosario Sanchez. What a world we live in, where women's rights are actually going backwards.

www.feministcurrent.com/2018/12/13/sex-selective-abortion-rise-never-dangerous-time-neglect-sex-statistics/

OP posts:
irnbruforlife · 19/12/2018 15:13

I always find this at odds with the typical feminist view of abortion. You are either pro choice or your not (is what is alway bandied about on mn re abortion). The reason for the abortion is neither here nor there surely, if a woman wants an abortion, she should be able to access one for whatever reason she so desires, if the bottom line is she doesnt want to continue the pregnancy. I cant say i personally agree with that, but then i dont agree with the typical view of abortion on mn.

Barracker · 19/12/2018 16:28

I'm very concerned about the way feminists who believe in full body autonomy for pregnant women begin to suspend that principle when they perceive a competing right to take precedence.

It's a foot in the door technique designed to undermine a principle which should be universal.

If you believe that every woman deserves
-all information relating to her pregnancy conveyed to her as her right

  • sovereignty over her body and decisions
then you accept that she will terminate her pregnancy in circumstances in which you would not and you fight for her right to do that.

One cannot argue that women must have pregnancy information withheld, to prevent informed decisions, or that certain of her reasons for terminating are wrong and she must be forced to continue with those pregnancies.

Forcing individual women to bear the brunt of an unwanted pregnancy in service or duty to a wider political or social cause isn't compatible with believing women should have unquestioned bodily autonomy.

There are billions of born females for us to focus on saving and protecting. Any movement to force them to bear unwanted girls (and their reasons will be many, for some including a risk of severe life-threatening retribution if they fail to hear a son) will not improve their lives, nor will it help women in general.

The problem is not women terminating their pregnancies.
It is the society in which they are not free or safe to make their own reproductive choices.
Let's fix that, and the problem will resolve itself.

Bowlofbabelfish · 19/12/2018 16:35

The problem is not women terminating their pregnancies.
It is the society in which they are not free or safe to make their own reproductive choices.

This.

UpstartCrow · 19/12/2018 16:38

Neither the author or OP is blaming individual women; the article states very clearly it is a culture of misogyny driving this.

FloralBunting · 19/12/2018 16:45

It's insane, but I consider myself pro-life, and I just don't get the logic here. I mean, I don't want any woman to feel that she must end her pregnancy, and my pro life views means that I try and support all means and measures to change society so that no woman is ever in the position where abortion seems like the best thing to do.

As I've said before, the strongest pro choice argument is the bodily autonomy of women argument. I'm pro life on the basis that I believe we have a competing rights situation in abortion - but bodily autonomy is the strongest argument in response there is.

To have pro choice feminists arguing against abortion specifically for sex selection is all kinds of confused. Why would you think the child's rights to life suddenly automatically override the woman's autonomy just because the child is female?

It's an inconsistency that undercuts your strongest point.

Bowlofbabelfish · 19/12/2018 16:55

A woman should be able to terminate for any reason, and of we accept that we accept that is for ANY reason. Her bodily autonomy takes precedence always.

The problem is societal pressure that results in women feeling forced to terminate female foetuses.

Almondcandle · 19/12/2018 17:26

There is nothing in that article that advocates either preventing women from choosing abortions or allowing women to know the sex of the foetus.

Almondcandle · 19/12/2018 17:29

Floral, it’s not about a child’s right to life. It is about the resulting problems for women and girls when societal demographics becoming hugely skewed by abortion and infanticide.

ItIsChristmasTime · 19/12/2018 17:30

Quite recently I saw another post on here where a high number refused to believe that sex selection abortion was really a thing in this country.

BehemothPullsThePeasantsPlough · 19/12/2018 17:32

One problem is that if abortion on grounds of sex is illegal then having the “wrong” baby is just bad luck. If it’s legal then having the wrong baby is something that a woman has done deliberately and can be punished for by her family. But I do understand the argument of not criminalising individual women for choices made under the influence of a misogynist society.

Cherries101 · 19/12/2018 17:38

Surely without the ability to abort a baby, some women take it in their own hands? I know women who have tried to induce themselves after finding out they’re having a boy (Usually in mixed muslim- / sikh / hindu relationships where a circumcision causes a lot of aggro between families) and so the boy is them born premature. A lot of these kids end up having lifelong conditions as a result and the mainly western midwives / GPs that treat them have no idea because they’re looking for female infanticide if they’re looking at all.

I believe women should have the right to abort. If the UK doesn’t want sex-selected abortions then do what India has done and ban the ability to find out the sex of the baby.

welshgendercrit · 19/12/2018 17:43

The problem is societal pressure that results in women feeling forced to terminate female foetuses.

Not only feeling forced but in some cultures having no choice because of the power imbalance between women and their partners and wider family. I wonder how many women abort children they would otherwise have welcomed because of these pressures?

OP posts:
FloralBunting · 19/12/2018 18:37

I wonder how many women abort children they would otherwise have welcomed because of these pressures?

That's a baseline pro life point, though. At least in my experience it is.

If the argument is about the demographics and the skewing of the female/male ratio, as is the case in China, it's even less compelling as a reason to undercut female autonomy, tbh, though I do see the reasoning.

Yarnswift · 19/12/2018 18:47

Quite recently I saw another post on here where a high number refused to believe that sex selection abortion was really a thing in this country.

I suspect it’s a thing everywhere. I had two babies in Sweden: both times the sonographer flat out refused to give any guess on sex for this reason. We naively assumed she was just being arsey (she was really rude to us from the start ) and in the end she told us flat out that it was because of sex selective abortion. We were both quite taken aback. So it must happen everywhere.

irnbruforlife · 20/12/2018 04:49

But why should sonographers not give out sex details? Punishing the majority to effectively try and control a small amount into not having abortions. Not very pro choice. And you can bet a fair proportion of these will just get a private scan anyway.

brizzledrizzle · 20/12/2018 04:54

Quite some time ago I saw a photograph of a baby lying in the gutter. She was in the gutter because she wasn't a boy. She had been killed some time at/after birth and been discarded like a piece of rubbish. For her, perhaps an abortion would have been preferable to infanticide.

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