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In defense of baby girls
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Date Posted on this Site
April 14, 2008
Publication
Ottawa Citizen
Publication Date
April 11, 2008
Published Content
Sex selection abortion is a serious problem in Canada and around the world - and free access to gender ID kits encourages this abhorrent practice
Ujjal Dosanjh, and Raminder Dosanjh
Sex selection for the purpose of committing female feticide is one of the most heinous acts of violence and hatred inflicted on women. It is a practice rooted in misogyny, and it is a practice that we have spoken out against both in Canada and during travels in India.
While we firmly support a woman's right to choose as paramount, there is a clear distinction to be drawn between supporting access to safe abortions, which we vigorously defend, and the abortion of fetuses solely to prevent the births of female babies due to biased socio- cultural norms, which we abhor.
The subject of female feticide has garnered attention recently due to the advent of gender ID kits -- home tests that allow expectant mothers to privately draw blood samples and send them to DNA testing labs where gender determination can be made as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Supporters of the kits say they are harmless, that they allow parents to decorate accordingly for the arrival of their child, and, in any event, that it is impossible to stop the progression of technology from making these kits available to the public.
But we believe that the kits present very serious potential for increasing occurrences of female feticide.
Inequalities of power and control between men and women have long resulted in a preference for male children. This preference has led to extreme methods of guaranteeing the births of boys, including feticide. In some instances, after a female is born, she is mistreated, abused, or -- in the most tragic situations -- murdered simply on the basis of her sex.
In addition to the centuries-old cultural values that have promoted disparities between men and women, population control policies and the expense of raising children in countries such as China and India have resulted in disturbing patterns of gender preferencing. In one district in Punjab, India, the balance is approximately 700 females to every 1,000 males. In certain areas of Canada, such as Surrey, B.C., we are beginning to see statistics of similarly skewed gender imbalances -- where, for instance, studies show that for every 108 boys there are only 100 girls being born. If nothing is done to curb the practice of female feticide in Canada, this sort of imbalance could become more widespread.
During our lives in India and Canada, we have witnessed horrific examples of violence and discrimination against women. It is true that Indian culture has often turned a blind eye to female feticide, infanticide, neglect, malnourishment and death of young females. We have seen abuse and killings of women during marriage, dowry killings and otherwise.
The Indian government is finally taking these matters seriously, and has recently enacted regulations to ban gender ID kits from being imported into that country. But no law or any relevant regulations have yet been issued with regard to gender ID kits in Canada.
Before home kits were available, and still today, a clinic operating in Washington State performs early pregnancy gender determination tests, and many Canadian women have been known to cross the border in search of those services. It can be said with a fair degree of certainty that at least some of the clinic's patrons end up committing feticide. Having the same technology available at home will facilitate the process, and will likely appeal to many people who would otherwise not undergo the stress of travelling to a foreign clinic to conduct such tests.
Gender ID kits have been available for purchase on the Internet since 2005. The American company that first mass-produced these kits marketed them in a high-profile campaign. The emphasis of that campaign was on helping parents to be prepared even further in advance of their baby's arrival by making gender information available in the first trimester. Newspaper reports in the U.S. claim that the company has sold thousands of kits in the past few years. There are of course no figures available on how many of those kits were purchased with the intent of committing feticide, but it is not difficult to imagine that many may have been used for that purpose.
In an editorial on April 4 ("Weeding out little girls") the Citizen criticized our calls (made by Ujjal in an interview with the CBC) for government involvement or regulation of the home gender ID kit industry. While there will always be people who are able to obtain the kits, it is our contention that government regulation could make it difficult for the ID kits to be purchased with the intention of sex selecting. An outright ban of gender ID kits may be unworkable, but given the potential risks of the kits being widely available -- and given that they are being used without the supervision of a medical professional -- we believe that regulations are in order.
Regulations alone are not the answer, and we are not so naïve as to think so. The fact is that the practice of female feticide is deep- seated in certain sections of our society and it would require a major shift in attitude to valuing women as equals to be completely eradicated. Still, establishing regulations for the appropriate use of gender ID kits would be a positive step for our government to take. At a minimum, we would like to see public health officials in Canada speaking on this matter and drawing attention to the many risks and the inherent degradation implicit in sex selection.
The hostility toward women that results in female feticide should be universally denounced. We will continue to advocate for a woman's right to choose, but we will never support those who abuse that right -- whether or not they are employing gender ID kits -- to prevent the births of baby girls on the basis of sex alone.
Ujjal Dosanjh is the member of Parliament for Vancouver South. Raminder Dosanjh is a women's rights activist.
My Response Letter
Although I support the restriction of gender ID kits in order to limit sex selection abortions, the logical inconsistencies in this article are astounding and impossible to ignore.
If, as the authors attest, they "firmly support a woman's right to choose as paramount", then the choice itself is of foremost importance and the reason for the abortion is irrelevant. How can abortion, when done to dispose of girls, be "one of the most heinous acts of violence and hatred inflicted on women", but simply a woman's choice when done for reasons related to finances or employment or desire? Is the procedure not the same? Is the result not the same?
In truth, there is no satisfactory explanation for why it is permissible to kill an unborn girl if the girl has down syndrome or if the mother is poor but not permissible if the child is unwanted because of its sex.
Abortion is abhorrent no matter the reason.
Jason Gennaro
Was my response published?
Yes