Mosher: Gender Selection Abortion Spreading

Longstanding cultural desires and China’s continued one child policy have created a world where more and more unborn girls are being aborted according to Population Research Institute President Steven Mosher. Mosher is in Pittsburgh this week to speak to the National Right to Life Committee Annual Convention being held near the airport. Mosher says he has been in classrooms in china where of the 30 or so students more than 20 are boys. He says he has also seen too many mysterious deaths among newborn girls. “ The little boys always seem to do just fine, “ says Mosher, “and so I went and asked elderly midwives what was happening and they said they were being given instructions by some parents that any girls children being born should not be allowed to survive.”
Mosher says it is not just a problem in China. A recent study in the Indian state of Punjab found that 130 boys are born for every 100 girls. The normal birth rate is 106 boys for every 100 girls. Mosher says it is not just a rural issue. He says the worst rate seen anywhere in the world is among the upper caste in Punjab where there are 300 girls in every 1,000 live births. “That means 7 of 10 unborn baby girls are being killed,” says Mosher. India has a law against sex selective abortions but it is rarely enforced. Most European countries have similar laws that are enforced with the exception of Sweden. Mosher says that has lead to “abortion tourism” to Sweden.
With the lack of women of marrying age in some Asian countries it could be assumed that the value of those remaining females would be great. Mosher says that is not the case. He says the lack of females has turned women into a commodity rather than desirable humans. He says girls are being married younger and the number being sold into sex slavery is increasing. Mosher says the lack of women has also lead to increased violence among single men, increased gang populations as men look for a surrogate family and he claims it has increased the incidence of homosexuality and rape as men look for an outlet for their sexual desires.
Mosher says sex selection abortion is now being seen stateside. Recent data shows some Asian American communities are using abortion to choose the sex of their children. Mosher says the first-born children of these populations show normal sex ratio however, “if the first child was a son, the sex ratio of the second born children was also normal. But what happened if the first child was a girl? The number of sons outnumbered daughters by 50-percent.” Illinois has had a law on the books since 1975 making sex selection through abortion illegal. Pennsylvania followed suit in 1989 and Oklahoma has just approved such a ban. Mosher says he expects Georgia to follow suit soon and then other states may follow.