Posted on 04/07/2008 7:53:36 AM PDT by rhema
The unfettered "right to choose" is a progressive value, we are instructed by the abortion lobby — one indispensable to the empowerment of women. But a new study in PNAS (the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) prompts an awkward question: How exactly are American women empowered when abortion is deployed to prevent the existence of American girls?
Population experts have documented for years the use of abortion for sex selection in regions of the world where sons are more highly prized than daughters. . . .
The natural sex ratio at birth is slightly male-biased at roughly 1.05-to-1, meaning that about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. But in China the current ratio at birth is about 120 boys per 100 girls — and in more prosperous parts of the country, such as Guangdong and Hainan, the imbalance has reached an even more lopsided 135-to-100.
In India, census data from 2001 show that among children younger than 6, there are just 927 girls per 1,000 boys. There too, the greater the prosperity, the greater the discrepancy: In the high-income state of Punjab, notes Joseph D'Agostino of the Population Research Institute, there are only 793 girls for every 1,000 boys. He cites a report by UNICEF, which calculates that "7,000 fewer girls are now born in India each day than nature would dictate, and 10 million have been killed during pregnancy or just after in the past 20 years."
< snip >
Most Americans rightly regard sex-selective abortions as odious; in a 2006 Zogby poll, an overwhelming 86 percent of Americans agreed that such abortions should be illegal. But they're not illegal — and as economists Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund indicate in the latest issue of PNAS, they are now occurring in the United States, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
bump; FGM, in the name of multiculturalism is as odious if not more so.
Feminist in their quest for “women’s rights†in their support of “abortion at anytime for any reason†and their total disgust for western culture and Christianity - are now responsible for the killings of millions and millions of girls...
Obviously, like any prolife supporter, I find abortion for sex selection (or for any reason for that matter) abhorrent.
However, ironically, aborting females does raise their ‘value.’ More males and less females increases the demand for the remaining females.
Here's how liberals react when they confront contradictions arising from their naive and unrealistic philosophy: they simply avert their eyes. They cover their ears and chant la-la-la-la-la.
This is why their house of cards always falls eventually. But oh, the cost.
She hugs me and tells me she loves me at least 5 times a day each and every day.
Daughters are a blessing from the Lord, like manna from heaven.
Though I don't have much money I am a very wealthy man.
From your mouth to God's Ear!
My husband is the father of four daughters. He would agree with you. Blessed is the father of daughers for he will never be alone.
I have two daughters and a son, and all three are more precious to me than life itself.
Children are blessings no matter the gender.... Mine have taught me to be a better man....
I hear that the Arabic for "father of daughters" is "Abu Banat", and it's NOT a compliment.
The Left is a conglomeration of various cults ran by would be dictators and kooks, like Patricia Ireland and Rev. Wright.
Not disagreeing with the thrust of the article, but the math looks fuzzy. In the example he cites of Asian families in the US, the probability of the second child after one girl being a son being 1.15 - 1 (ratio) then the third child after two girls being 1.5 - 1, that is natural, in fact it should be higher, simply because it is unlikely to have several children of the same gender in a row. Like flipping a coin and getting several heads or tails in a row.
I thought the natural sex ratio was slightly female biased, 105/100 in female’s favor. This is the first time I’ve read otherwise.
And I thought I was a wealthy man =)
>>Not disagreeing with the thrust of the article, but the math looks fuzzy. In the example he cites of Asian families in the US, the probability of the second child after one girl being a son being 1.15 - 1 (ratio) then the third child after two girls being 1.5 - 1, that is natural, in fact it should be higher, simply because it is unlikely to have several children of the same gender in a row. Like flipping a coin and getting several heads or tails in a row.<<
Dear SeminoleSoldier,
The article’s math isn’t fuzzy - yours is.
After getting 100 heads in a row, the odds are still 50/50 that the next toss will result in “heads.” Simply put: The coin does not “remember” previous tosses.
Regards,
Anything uttered in Arabic is not a compliment.
>>I thought the natural sex ratio was slightly female biased, 105/100 in female’s favor. This is the first time I’ve read otherwise.<<
Dear Tamar1973,
That the sex ratio is slightly biased in favor of boys was recognized at least as long ago as Charles Darwin (”The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”).
And it makes sense, too: By the time the children have themselves reached child-bearing age, the ratio is roughly 1:1. That’s because, for boys, infant mortality is higher than for girls. Read: Boys are weaker, have a higher incidence of birth defects, and tend to survive childhood to a slightly lesser extent than girls. That continues right on up to old age.
Regards,
You got that right!
One of the great, simple joys of my life is getting in the car to go to work in the morning with one little barefoot girl carrying my coffee, another my lunch ... getting hugs and kisses after these items are safely deposited in the car ... while a third, too-young-to-walk daughter is propped up against the big window at the front of the house, and a fourth (older) daughter prances across the front porch re-enacting the "Good Bye" song from The Sound of Music.
All of which is to say, yes, daughters are a blessing from the Lord. :-)
I remember reading a study several years ago that correlated a sex unbalance (an excess of males) in a country with the warlike actions of their government. We all know that cause is not the same as correlation, but it does not sound good with China.
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