Beyond shocking: "There are now millions upon millions of new “missing baby girls” each year."

[snagglepuss]

This still-growing international predilection for sex-selective abortion is by now evident in the demographic contours of dozens of countries around the globe — and it is sufficiently severe that it has come to alter the overall sex ratio at birth of the entire planet, resulting in millions upon millions of new “missing baby girls” each year. In terms of its sheer toll in human numbers, sex-selective abortion has assumed a scale tantamount to a global war against baby girls.


snip


The ten societies with biologically unnatural SRBs examined thus far represent most of the world’s major religious and cultural traditions: Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. But these are by no means the only contemporary settings in which evidence of the phenomenon is emerging at a population-wide level (see Tables 2 and 3).

Recent vital statistics for places with complete or near-complete registration, and census returns for other places, point to almost twenty additional countries or territories with populations of one million or greater with suspiciously high SRBs. Other places in Asia with high recent SRBs and/or child sex ratios include the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey. In North Africa and the Middle East, both Lebanon and Libya betray the same disturbing demographic characteristics.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, elevated SRBs or child sex ratios are seen in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and El Salvador. But it is important to recognize that the phenomenon is also now evident in over half a dozen European countries as well. Albania’s officially reported 2004 SRB was 113. In Serbia and Montenegro — portions of the former Yugoslavia — 2008 SRBs were 109 and 108, respectively. And in the nominally Catholic-majority populations of Austria, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, officially reported 2008 SRBs were all 107.


snip

Naturally impossible SRBs are also now seen in the United States and the United Kingdom — within particular ethnic groups. In America, as Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund have reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), SRBs of 108 were characteristic of the “Asian-Pacific” population (Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans, Filipino- Americans, etc.)




http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-global-war-against-baby-girls

[kestrel91316]

1. This is why it's so important to ban all abortions.

[Quantess]

2. The earth needs fewer human babies, in general.

[provis99]

3. the unintended consequence is that baby girls will eventually be more valuable than boys.

simply because they are rarer.

[piedmont]

14. yes-- as chattel. nt

[msanthrope]

4. Why are you posting from a RW source on abortion?

Your mag, was founded in 2003 by a RW think tank, Ethics and Public Policy Center...it's a leading 'scientific' journal that defends climate change denial.

[snagglepuss]

5. Given that the article cites studies that don't come from RW think tanks, I don't

think that your criticism invalidates the article. If the studies it cites are bogus that is a different story but your criticism seems to be simply killing the messenger.

[Hugabear]

6. I think it's still a right wing anti choice argument

And the fact that a right wing publication would run with the story backs that up. Their hope is that we'll be horrified over the prospect of selective abortions, and that we would then support placing restrictions on abortion.

[Kali]

10. the whole thing seemed suspicious to me

thanks for that info, I wasn't familiar with the source

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. "in the United States and the United Kingdom — within particular ethnic groups"

Noteworthy.

Nationwide, however, it's a different story

If we're going to be outraged about preference for boys in China, we should be equally outraged about the demonstrable preference for girls in the US.

[riderinthestorm]

8. Except of course, the OP is about a global phenomenon of gender selection for boys...

Nice way to try to minimize the truly disastrous consequences of this for our planet by trying to skew the convo into some kind of argument about one or the other. Because as the OP makes clear, it really is about one gender - girls - who are being selectively disappeared on a global scale.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Then why mention the US where the reality is 180° from the intended point?

The reality is, that as it pertains to the US, the op is wrong.

FWIW The ultimate effect of this will be a drop in Chinese birthrates.

[riderinthestorm]

11. Because it's a global survey. Feel free however to continue to miss the point. nt

[smokey nj]

12. According to your own link, there is no evidence that male fetuses are aborted at a higher rate than

female fetuses in the US.

"In the U.S., only a small percentage of abortions happen when it is even likely that the mother knows her unborn baby's gender, and there is no evidence that either gender is aborted more often."

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. From that same link

http://www.in-gender.com/XYU/Gender-Preference/#SexSelection

Sex Selection Statistics and Gender Preference

Actual parents seeking to use currently available sex selection techniques are mostly trying to have a girl.
MicroSort Sex Selection
80% of American families who use MicroSort sperm separation want a girl.
Gender Requested by U.S. Parents Using MicroSort

80% Girls, 20% Boys
The fact that MicroSort is 91% effective for conceiving a girl, compared to only 76% accurate for a boy, is probably a factor in more requests for a girl.
Ericsson Method for Gender Selection
Although the Ericsson method claims a higher success rate for boys, Dr. Ericsson reports that more requests are for girls; in some of the 48 licensed Ericsson clinics, the ratio is as high as 2 to 1.
Gender Requested by U.S. Parents Using the Ericsson Method

Twice as many girls as boys
The Gen-Select Kit
The Gen-Select kit claims to be 96% effective in choosing either a boy or a girl. The company says that virtually all U.S. parents purchase the $199 kit for family balancing, hoping for a child of the opposite gender of the children they already have. Girl kits are purchased 8% more often than boy kits.
Gender of Gen-Select Kits Purchased in the U.S.

54% Girls, 46% Boys
Ericsson Sex Selection
The Ericsson method claims to be more effective for selecting a boy: 81% accurate, compared to only 74% for a girl. Yet Dr. Ronald Ericsson, the inventor and company president, "has noticed a distinct preference in the desire for girls," and infers that "the era of wanting a first-born male is gone, not to return."

Is the problem sex selection or is the problem abortion?

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Your link says the problem is abortion

That is, it has a problem with any abortion. It says "I hasten to point out that "only 5%" of the 1.3 million abortions annually in the U.S. is still a staggering 65,000 babies, and the loss of each one of those little souls for any reason is a tragedy." It doesn't call sex selection a 'tragedy', or say there's anything wrong with it. In fact, the whole site is dedicated to promoting sex selection. It criticises the UK for banning sex selection: http://www.in-gender.com/XYU/Ethics/

[Arugula Latte]

19. It's interesting. I've noticed a gender preference for girls among many people.

The profile I've noticed this in tends to be white/coastal/educated/have first babies in their 30s. It's not that they would take steps to ensure a girl (by aborting a boy, for example), but those who do have a preference tend to want at least one girl.

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. I believe in choice, even if I disagree with the reasons.

The reason this is interesting is how it reflects upon the culture in question. Asians would appear to devalue and hold daughters in contempt because they use their available technology to select sons.

But what does that say of us? 70% of US parents seeking gender selection services choose daughters.
I'm supposed to believe that this is also reflective of the contempt and devaluation girls experience in US society? Riiight.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/

[customerserviceguy]

13. Frankly, this is a sort of solution to the population problem

If there were to be developed a pill (or some other simply and cheaply administered treatment) that virtually guaranteed the conception and birth of male children, the most sexist and backwards societies would breed themselves out of existence in two or three generations.

[bongbong]

15. I'm glad

I'm glad I read DU, so I get to see the "moderate" repig talking points that the minions have been ordered to disseminate.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Anti-choice crap from a wingnut source

[FarCenter]

17. List of countries by sex ratio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio

A sex ration of 1.05 +- 0.03 seems quite normal. There are only a few countries above 1.08. They are mainly China and India, a few countries in the Caucasus, and Albania.

Note that African countries are generally on the low side, around 1.03. So it looks like there is some genetic variation.

[JDPriestly]

21. A form of birth control?

This will slow the rate of the population explosion just a little.

[mitu19]

22. A woman fighting needs your help

It is estimated that about 50 million girls have gone missing. They are aborted based on their sex. India has passed laws 18 years ago making it illegal for a medical practitioner to reveal the sex of an unborn baby. This law is rarely implemented because most of the government officials and judiciary are apathetic to this epidemic. This has caused the sex ratios to be extremely skewed in certain parts of India.

Please read the following articles and the story of one lone woman, Dr Mitu Khurana, who has bought a case against the hospital, her husband and in- laws, who illegally found out the sex of her unborn twin baby girls and then tried to force her to have an abortion. She has been given the run around for four long years by the Indian judicial system.

http://crybelovedcountry.com/2012/01/the-face-of-gendercide/

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ne040212Lack.asp

Can anyone give a voice to the 50 million girls that have been silenced forever? All Dr. Khurana is asking for is a chance to go before an unbiased judge and be heard. Can anyone give a voice to the 50 million murdered and raise the question with Indian officials as to why they are silently witnessing the elimination of a whole generation.

The silence of the Indian officials tell the story and makes us wonder if Dr. Khurana and the 50 million dead baby girls will ever see justice done.

[renie408]

24. Yeah, I think you are working a tough crowd with that one. n/t