Girls may be the next endangered species. In much of Asia and Eastern Europe, parents are using sex-selective abortion to have boys. As a result, more than 160 million females have gone “missing” from Asia’s population — more than the entire female population in the United States, says journalist Mara Hvistendahl.
She’s the author of “Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men” (PublicAffairs, 336 pp., $26.99). Hvistendahl spoke with editorial writer Julie O’Connor about this disturbing trend, and how it factors into the abortion debate in the United States.
Q. Why are there so many more boys than girls in countries like China and India, slightly skewing the gender ratio worldwide?
A. Women go in for ultrasounds and abort if the fetus turns out to be female. There has to be some element of gender discrimination here, for couples to want boys so badly. But that alone doesn’t explain where sex selection crops up — you also have countries where women are discriminated against, but the sex ratio at birth is balanced.
The birth rate has fallen pretty dramatically in countries where sex selection occurs, from five or six children in the 1960s to just one or two today. That increases pressure on couples in these cultures to make sure one of their children is a boy. Also, because sex selection now is mostly done using abortion, abortion rates tend to be high in countries where it’s prevalent. It’s actually happening in countries that are developing quickly.
Mara HvistendahlQ. Why do parents in these countries want sons, not daughters?
A. There are all sorts of reasons, depending on the country. In India, the reason that often comes up is dowry. Since you have to pay the husband’s family, that makes daughters expensive. In China, it may be that the son is expected to carry on the family line or take care of you in your old age, while the daughter marries out of the family. But those traditions have been around in one form or another for centuries. I don’t think local explanations really tell us why this is happening now on such a broad scale.
Read more at nj
Comments