It's a girl!

For the vast majority of parents, the birth of a girl is as welcome as the birth of a boy. But in some parts of the globe, the advent of a baby girl is greeted not with tears of joy, but with expressions of disappointment - and sometimes a death sentence.

There is a Chinese saying: "The birth of a boy is welcomed with shouts of joy and firecrackers, but when a girl is born, the neighbors say nothing."

Since the late 1970s, China’s Communist regime has implemented a brutal population control programme involving forced abortions, sterilisations and a plethora of other gross abuses of human rights. The regime has announced recently that the general limit of one child per couple will be raised in March to two children. This move, however, will do little to redress the massive gender imbalance which the one-child policy has created, despite an official ban on sex-selection practices.

Gendercide

As Newsweek magazine reported in May:

"By 2020, the National State Population and Family Planning Commission projects that males of marrying age will outnumber females by at least 30 million ... The combination of China’s one child policy and the advent of sonograms has meant that families who preferred a son could get what they wanted, aborting unwanted girls."

Lethal discrimination against baby girls is an issue even in nations which do not impose abortion or population control, such as India, where there are millions fewer girls than boys. Even though India, like China, also has an official ban on sex-selection practices, the East-West Center reports that:

"In India, until recently, billboard messages promised: "Invest 500 (rupees) now and save 50,000 later," encouraging prospective parents to abort female fetuses in order to avoid future dowry expenses."

Sex-selection in the UK

There are also credible allegations of sex-selective abortions among Indian communities in Western countries. Right now a 22-year-old English pro-life campaigner is facing a £22,000 legal bill after her unsuccessful bid last week to stop such abortions.

The pro-abortion movement claims that it is not legal abortion which is the problem but the ingrained preference for boys in some Asian cultures. We should not be afraid to rebut this argument. It stands to reason that legalising a lethal method of eliminating those deemed undesirable will lead to a greater numbers of them being killed. This is a form of eugenics, in which parents decide that their children of one sex or the other are unworthy to be part of their family.

A child, not a choice

Every child has the right to be accepted unconditionally by his or her parents. Human beings are not products to be selected, but gifts to be accepted. Sex selection is an unworthy motive and aspiration for human parenting. There are no compelling social, economic, medical or psychological arguments for preferring one sex to the other. The socio-economic damages of sex-selection are increasingly apparent in China and India.

To find out how you can help SPUC fight against lethal discrimination against unborn children, contact Isaac Spencer by email isaacspencer@spuc.org.uk or by phone on 020 7820 3147. You can also sign SPUC’s petition against abortion miscertification.