Responding to criticism of her book Unnatural Selection, Mara Hvistendahl comes close to blaming the pro-life movement for the missing 160 women. It's a bit ridiculous that she tries to say we've focused too much on abortions done after ultrasound reveals a baby's sex and not enough on embryos that are discarded after PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis, done in the course of IVF). It's simply not true. We've harped on both all along. Still, here's some food for thought from her Foreign Policy rebuttal:
The anti-abortion movement should agree that sex selection, along with many other forms of selection, is wrong, and indeed many in the religious community see what happens today as tampering with God's work. . . . But unfortunately the same people who would ban abortion in the United States are often allied with the very ones who advocate for free-market health care and lax oversight of industry -- the very ingredients that have made the United States a destination for the hyper-controlling parents of the world intent on getting a certain type of child. Conservatives who object to tampering with reproduction are rivaled in strength by those who favor letting market forces govern health care.
The result is nothing less than consumer eugenics. . . . Activists on both the right and the left might now be wise to abandon the abortion fray and consider speaking out for restraint in other areas. Governments in Asia have introduced measures to address sex selective abortion, and Western support for those measures is critical. But beyond that, the United States should now lead in addressing the new technologies emerging from within its borders. We owe as much to the world and to future generations -- so that next time it can't be said that we knew and yet chose not to act.For the record, there's no way we're going to "abandon the abortion fray."
Related:
"I Know It's a Girl, and I Need Your Help To Get It Out of Me."
Review of Unnatural Selection
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