Infanticide, Abortion Responsible for 60 Million Girls Missing in Asia

[AngryAmish]

Source: Fox News (yeah I know)

There is a little-known battle for survival going in some parts of the world. Those at risk are baby girls, and the casualties are in the millions each year. The weapons being used against them are prenatal sex selection, abortion and female infanticide — the systematic killing of girls soon after they are born.

According to a recent United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of the World Population Report, these practices, combined with neglect, have resulted in at least 60 million "missing" girls in Asia, creating gender imbalances and other serious problems that experts say will have far reaching consequences for years to come.

"Twenty-five million men in China currently can’t find brides because there is a shortage of women," said Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute in Washington, D.C. "The young men emigrate overseas to find brides."

The imbalances are also giving rise to a commercial sex trade; the 2005 report states that up to 800,000 people being trafficked across borders each year, and as many as 80 percent are women and girls, most of whom are exploited.



Read more: <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281722,00.html>

---

60 million?

[ShortnFiery]

1. Why isn't The Vatican getting "hot and bothered" by this instead of with holding monies

from compassionate Amnesty agencies JUST BECAUSE they offer family planning options? :eyes:

[Kagemusha]

5. Now that's a completely unfair attack. They're heavily repressed in China.

They've been against the one child policy and similar stuff for years and years. They are hot and bothered by it. That's not news. That's not secret.

[ShortnFiery]

6. I'm not talking about China, I'm talking about the Vatican. I don't see much action. n/t

[Igel]

12. There's not much action the Catholic Church can take.

They already have to seek approval for appointing bishops and ministers--and if the church doesn't like the government's "nominees", it doesn't matter. The church in China also has to declare it's allegiance first and foremost to the government, modifying any teachings or doctrines to make the Communist Party folk happy; to do otherwise would result in even heavier repression.

There's an unofficial Catholic church that's quite underground.

The Vatican doesn't like the Chinese policies; it's complained about them off and on for years, knowing that it has maybe zero sway (and maybe less than zero). But if it acts up too much, there are the Catholics in China that are effectively hostages and could have what little religious tolerance there is for the Catholic Church nixed. This article says little new, and a new outcry by the Vatican would accomplish little but making some Westerners feel good.

[Kagemusha]

13. Besides vociferous condemnation, what do you expect?

I'm not going to put words in anyone's mouth either. I don't know what you were expecting.

[xultar]

2. I'd like to see all the fundies who love life get on this one...

:crickets chirping:

[Demeter]

3. That Would Interfere With The Racism

all those Yellow Hordes, doncha know?

I think American girls need a larger pool of eligible men anyway...makes up for all those we lose in pointless, futile wars....

[jberryhill]

20. Ummm.... is Beverly Lahaye Fundie Enough For You?

http://www.beverlylahayeinstitute.org/articledisplay.asp?id=780&department=BLI&categoryid=dotcommentary


Female Infanticide

The Chinese government has a new goal to continue restricting births for the next fifty years. The State Family Planning Commission released The White Paper on Population in December. The White Paper shows that the goal is a population of 1.6 billion people in the year 2050. The Chinese people have been limited for the past twenty years, to one child to urban families and two to farmers if the first child is a girl. A Weekly Briefing by the Population Research Institute states, “The one-child policy itself is the most oppressive regime of birth control ever inflicted by a government on its people. Parents are denied the right to determine for themselves the number and spacing of their children, and women who get pregnant outside the plan are subject to threats, fines, and even brute force.” G. William Skinner, an anthropologist and China specialist at the University of California-Davis, and Chinese researcher Yuan Jianhua presented comprehensive data, at an annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, that shows female infanticide has reached the proportions of an epidemic due to traditional family patterns combined with China’s population-control measures. Close to 800,000 baby girls were abandoned or killed in a single region between 1971-80 alone.


http://www.covenantnews.com/abortion/archives/006793.html

Anti-Choice advocates constantly use China as an example of how "choice" leads to forced and coerced abortions. You think they are FOR abortion in China for some reason?

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Well, when all the girls are gone, so is the human race.

[WindRavenX]

7. While I am not condoning any of this deplorable news...

...it should be noted that many, if not most, animal systems that I can think of do have an unequal sex ratio. Humans are an odd bunch because our sex ratios are very close to 50/50 men:women.

but damn. Shortages of brides? Wasn't there a novel that started with the premise that future wars would be fought for the sake of claiming women for brides? Freaky :scared:

[Chulanowa]

19. Except it's usually the other way around.

Females are almost always more common than males. A lot of species in fact wind up going through hormone changes to become female when the male population grows too large for whatever reason.

The reason is simple - Female gametes are limited in number, so you want more females. Male gametes are in constant supply, and so you need fewer males.

Our 50/50 ratio is most likely due to cultural preference for males... and the fact we have the second-highest rate of death in childbirth of any mammal. Our kids have REALLY big heads and it causes all kinds of complications. Only the spotted hyena has more trouble giving birth than humans - and that's because the female birth canal passes through their clitoris.

Ouch.

[TX-RAT]

26. Just my observation on my place.

I've got 3 sections of land. It's got deer, turkey, quail and i also run about 68 head of cattle. The majority of the species are predominantly females. Deer run about 5 to 1, quail about 8 to 1 and turkey about the same. The ratio of cattle is 64 to 4 maintained by me, if left alone it drops to around 6 to 1. In the last 4 years I've had an invasion of feral hogs that seem to be taking over the state, they have a ration of about 7 to 1 with sows having multiple large litters per year.

[LeftyCanuck]

8. This situation is not new

Some people estimate that the number of "missing" women is in the order of 100 million.

http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/gender/Sen100M.html

[smoogatz]

9. Finally--a surefire U.S. export winner!

This is very exciting news. Why, it could mean the end of our current trade deficit with China!!111!! All we need to do is outlaw abortion in the U.S., and we'll have a nearly unlimited supply of unwanted girl-children on hand. Perhaps we could trade them even-up for new iPods!!1!

[Endangered Specie]

28. A Modest Proposal?

[Mark D.]

10. Bigger Picture

There is so much in the bigger picture surrounding this disgusting practice.
First. Short-sighted self-centered people. Since couples more often, if they
prefer a future child to be a certain gender, would pick male. From the very
self centered 'to continue the surname' to the men saying 'so I can throw a
baseball around with the kid' (not surprising in a world where what a dad
will think more often takes priority). Then the mom's classic 'a boy for
me' view won't help matters either. They participate in that girl hate.

It's a larger reality. In an over populated world, in fundamentalist homes
& in the growing Latino population (overwhelmingly Catholic and also anti
birth control) we see a 'baby-boom' happening. My beliefs, my desire to
have a big family, my this-my that. Forget the impact on the world that
can hardly sustain the population of 20 years ago let alone today also.

Well, as surely as it applies to family size it applies to couples who'll
have boys instead of girls over there who can choose to, or who use what
something not designed for that (abortion) to fix the numbers, or worse,
infanticide. Clearly 'illegal' in those paces, but likely given a blind
eye by the bastards who run the place who may consider such things too.

It's a simple case of what's best for the world, or for that child (as
a smaller number of kids means each kid gets more...attention, & stuff
in general, just doesn't matter. Selfishness is why overpopulation is
not a consideration in large families. It's also why kids are seen as
tools for self-centered purposes. Just the basic premise "I want" or
"We want" a kid screams selfishness. Not that parents are selfish in
general, that's not the point, but there is no other consideration.

It explains why more intelligent folks tend to have smaller families
in a lot of cases & places on average. They know better...and maybe,
just maybe, not driven by fundamentalism, a way to control the poor
and not-so-bright, so often, they want to do something positive, in
their own way, with their own sacrifices (ie. stopping at 1-2 kids).
Ultimately, to change this, there needs to be a sea change of folks
taking the focus off just what they want. But that won't be easy...

I've long since given up on a lot of that. Empathy vs. sociopathy,
it's clearly a catalyst in the struggle of Republican vs. Democrat
and criminal vs. law enforcement. The job of law enforcement is to
help others. The job of the criminal is to help themselves. Same in
many ways for Republicans, there purely to help those who own, run,
or invest in big corporations, and fool the rest (that's where the
sociopathy comes in) who don't benefit to think they do, as they'd
say they 'see things their way'. Be it bigotry, 'faith', and so on.

There is another factor. Hatred of women. Many who take this view
likely hate women in general. They see numbers showing there are
are more women than men in most places, and it's true, though it
is also true that the numbers don't favor women until you get up
over the age 40. In the age of dating and marriage below that...
when most of it happens...the numbers are the same, or, slightly
favoring men, since slightly more boys are born versus girls...

A man, that father, who has 'already got HIS woman' need never
care if his choice of a boy or boys as kids affects others. It
will even affect his own kids, when they grow up and find the
neighborhood they live in is 70/30 boy/girl. WTF? But then...
again...remember, they don't care what happens to anyone but
them. They'll be dead by then, and they did find a woman...

But the main problem is this. The biggest sea-change may not
address this. I mean, there would have to be strict laws and
they would have to be rigorously enforced. You can't lecture
or 'guide' one who's naturally sociopathic, or self-centered,
to care more about others as often as we'd like to think. If
we explain it well, and they even understand, the mindset of
'but how does that benefit me' kicks in and overrides that.

I know someone who voted GOP his whole life until the Bush
pushed law that took overtime away from many people, that
included his nurse/wife. Suddenly it mattered. For some,
'the only thing they understand is a wall against their
backs' (Paul Weller) and this won't change. We really
can only treat the symptoms...and hope for the best.

[bain_sidhe]

24. Even bigger picture

In most of Asia, boys are expected to care for their parents in their old age. Girls are expected to leave their parents (and often, with a dowry)... and care for their husband's parents in their old age. So, in that culture, it's economically advantageous to have boys, disadvantageous to have girls.

[artemis133]

11. The human race...

I really don't hold out much hope for the human race in the near future...I feel scary times are coming...it seems there isn't much thought given to things that people do in general, how they will affect others and the balance of the world. How does one hold on to any hope at all?

artemis

[superconnected]

14. If you look through our bloody history the human race has always

been iffy.

It's a wonder we weren't wiped out by plauge if nothing else.

Our natural predisposition for killing each other in large quanties also makes me wonder how we've made it this far.

We'll make it though global warming and anything else thrown at us. There will be just less of us.

The China situation is icky but it is preventing millions from reproducing, since they can't find mates. That's probably a good thing for the earth.

[candice]

16. A less than zero population growth would be more sustainable...

although one American child uses the resources of 17 children in an undeveloped country (and this was the figure twenty-odd years ago before every kid had to be driven around in a huge SUV and had to wear designer logos from sweat shops (don't know how my parents managed with one regular car for three kids).

[HockeyMom]

15. I'm an Only Child,

by my parent's choice, and FEMALE.

Maybe they were just ahead (1948) of their times.

PS. They were CATHOLIC also.

[libodem]

17. India

has much to same problem. They are not supposed to use techniques to sex the fetus for elimination but it still goes on.

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. Americans do it too.

Then we write editorials about the experience.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-neil6may06,0,2723837.story?coll=la-opinion-center

[Mark D.]

27. With All Due Respect

This does not compare. We don't 'do it too'.
That couple had faced the prospect of death,
or severe health complications to the mom if
she went full term. Two had to go. The two,
they were the ones with the greatest chance
of abnormalities. Glass half full - she had
saved two kids from a life of suffering and
growing up with only one living parent. The
two that remained happened to be female-but
they were most destined to be healthy. Can
you believe it, a choice that involved the
welfare of the kids too? They made what is
the right choice in that scenario I think.

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. They were chosen for termination because they were male.

Their rationalization was that the boys were at risk for Autism.

I'm not second-guessing their choice. I am observing that they did family planning by aborting male fetuses in lieu of female ones.

[snagglepuss]

18. Same thing happening in India. nt

[femrap]

22. Title of post should read:

Misogynist patriarchy responsible for....

[freethought]

23. Something else going in India

I have known about the plight of baby girls in China. Not too long ago I learned something similar going on in India.

In India the situation is a little different. In the culture it is customary for a bride to provide the groom's family with a dowry, money or property that is handed over to the groom's family before the wedding. The size of the dowry can often determine who the daughter/bride is handed over to. Well, in many cases the groom's family can be "demanding" or heavy-handed in what they want in a dowry. India may have a booming economy but not everyone is sharing in the wealth, poverty is still rampant.

When a baby girl is born, the first thing that comes to the mind of the parents is the dowry that's going to be attached to the girl when she grows up. To get out from under that obligation baby girls are often "dispatched". It's creating the same problem in India that is occurring in China, lots of young men looking for wives and traveling abroad to find them.

A horrid situation.

[JI7]

25. Anti Female sentiments in the culture is responsible for it

Girls are just not valued as they should be.