Sex Selection Abortions: China, India and that’s Right Canada Too!
By Karen Young

Over the past several months, sex selection and abortion have been making the news, not only in the mass media but in major medical journals including the prestigious journal in England, The Lancet.
           
The reality that sex selection abortion occurs, at least in some parts of the world, has been acknowledged for decades, especially with respect to China.  Recent research also suggests that sex selection abortions occur in India and even in our OWN COUNTRY!  Yes, that’s right, according to a research article published in the Western Standard on June 5 of this year, sex selection abortions are occurring throughout various regions in CANADA.

China

During the 1970’s many of the baby boomers were of the age to start their own families. Poor economic conditions coupled with the fact that China, being the third largest country in the world was home to a quarter of the world’s population, led to the introduction of China’s ‘one child policy.’  This policy basically put restrictions on family sizes.  In urban areas families were allowed only one child while couples in rural areas were often ‘permitted’ to have a second child, especially if the first child was a female.  Between 1970 and 2004 the fertility rate in China dropped from 2.9 children born per woman to 1.7 children and it is estimated that 250 – 300 million babies were killed.1
           
While these statistics are shocking it is even more staggering to learn that baby girls suffer the most from this ‘one child policy.’  In Chinese culture “families traditionally valued sons far more than daughters. A husband could divorce his wife if she failed to give birth to sons. In some cases, daughters were killed at birth because they were considered useless, for females could not continue the family name.”2  Thus, female babies that survived until birth often disappeared and with the introduction of ultrasounds and the ability to determine the sex of children in the womb, many women resorted to aborting babies who were not male even though the sex-selection abortion was illegal.  The result has been a huge discrepancy between the number of males and females born.  In 2002, 847 – 877 girls were born for every 1000 boys3 and statistics from China “suggest that 40 million men are now unable to have spouses”4 because of the loss of the female population.  This slight problem has prompted the Chinese government to start paying families a bonus if they have a girl.5

India

In recent months, researchers in India have revealed that the male to female ratio in this country is also skewed.  In 1981, the number of girls per 1000 boys was 962, in 1991 the number of girls per 1000 boys was 945 and by 2001 the number was only 927 girls per 1000 boys.6   Similar to the situation in China, the culture within India also favours boys over girls.  In fact, the discrepancies are greatest when looking at first born children and only second born children if the first child was a girl.  Once a male child has been born, the ratio of boys and girls in subsequent pregnancies is almost equal.7  It is estimated that between 1985 and 2005 10 million girls have died as a result of sex selection abortions.8   It must be noted that since 1994, the practice of sex selection abortion in India has been illegal and tests to determine the sex of the unborn baby are forbidden except for the detection of genetic diseases.  Those who perform tests to determine the sex of a baby are subject “to a fine, imprisonment, and suspension of the medical practitioner’s license”9 if caught.

Canada

In Canada, evidence that sex selection abortions are occurring was revealed in an article entitled “Canada’s Lost Daughters” which was published in the Western Standard.  Andrea Mrozek, the author of this article, began with the story of a BC school trustee who has been putting together bookbags for kindergarten students in Surrey for the past twelve years.  This trustee, it is reported, has noticed a significant shift in the number of bookbags she now needs to make for boys and the ever decreasing demand for bookbags for girls.
           
So, now for the big question: Is there in fact a correlation between the observations of the school trustee and actual fact?  Are there more boys being born in Surrey than girls?  Well, according to the Western Standard which extrapolated data from Statistics Canada, on average in Canadian society there is 1050 boys for every 1000 girls; however, in Surrey in 2003 there were 1090 boys for every 1000 girls and in 1999 there were 1110 boys for every 1000 girls.  In Coquitlam, British Columbia, there were 1120 boys for every 1000 girls in 2003, 1090 boys for every 1000 girls in 2001 and 1160 boys for every 1000 girls in 2000.  Similar trends were reported in Richmond, British Columbia, North Etobicoke, Ontario, Brampton, Ontario, Scarborough, Ontario and parts of Toronto’s China Town.10
           
Okay, so now that we have established that in certain areas of Canada there seems to be a discrepancy between the number of girls and boys born, the next question is why?  One of the common threads linking each of the communities with a higher number of boys being born than girls is their large number of immigrant families from India and China.  Is it possible that cultural norms in these countries are being carried over into Canada?
           
While the statistical evidence is significant, Andrea Mrozek also discovered from interviews with those who work in abortion clinics that sex selection abortions do in fact occur.  In fact one clinician “estimates that she sees women wanting to abort unwanted female fetuses, motivated by gender preference, at a rate of one a week.”11
           
While abortion advocates promote a woman’s right to choose and the notion that abortion is medically necessary for physical, psychological or emotional reason, how can abortion be justified when it is chosen simply because of the sex of the child in the womb?  Joyce Arthur, with the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada is quoted as saying ““Being pro-choice means supporting a woman’s right to decide whether or not to continue a pregnancy for whatever reason, even if one personally does not agree with her reason,” … the group suggests that those offended by the practice [sex selection abortions] should place blame on the societal norms that motivate couples to abort the female fetuses for want of a boy … the answer lies in education and raising the status of girls and women over the long-term, not in restricting abortion.”12
           
Our question to Joyce Arthur should be, how can we raise the status of girls and women over the long-term if in the long-term there will be thousands, if not millions, of females missing due to sex selection abortion.  In fact, women’s groups who are fighting for equality of men and women should be crying from the rooftops that members of the female sex are being aborted simply because they are female.  As Andrea points out “sex selection abortions represent a manifestation of the worst kind of chauvinism – the wish to keep women out of the world in favour of more men.”13
           
Canadian society as a collective whole should be abhorred by the fact that sex selection abortions happen here in our own country.  What’s next?  Genetic selection?  The Canadian version of Gattaca (the 1997 movie starting Ethan Hawke, about a world in which only the genetically ‘valid’ are acceptable)?
           
To read Andrea Mrozek’s article, Canada’s Lost Daughters, please visit www.westernstandard.ca. ♦

Karen Young is the Office Manager at LifeCanada

References

1 Therese Hesketh, Li Lu and Zhu Wei Xing, “The Effect of China’s One-Child Policy after 25 Years,” The New England Journal of Medicine (September 2005), Volume 353: 1171.
2 “Destiny: The culture of China”. < http://library.thinkquest.org/20443/g_way_of _life.html>
3 Hesketh,  Lu and Xing, “The Effect of China’s One-Child Policy “: 1171
4 Ibid, 1176
5 Andrea Mrozek, “Canada’s Lost Daughters,” Western Standard, (Alberta, Canada: June 5, 2006): 34.
6 Hesketh,  Lu and Xing, “The Effect of China’s One-Child Policy”: 1171
7 Ibid, 1173.
8 Prabhat Jha, Rajesh Kumar and Neeraj Dhingra, “Sex Ratio in India/Authors’ reply,” The Lancet, (London, May 27 – June 2, 2006), Volume 367, Issue 9524, pg. 1725.
9 Shirish S. Sheth, “Missing female births in Inda,” The Lanet, (London: January 21 – January 27, 2006), Volume 367, Issue 9506: 185
10 Mrozek, “Canada’s Lost Daughters”: 34.
11 Ibid, 34.
12 Ibid, 36.