Today is the second world celebration of the International “Day of the Girl” and everywhere there is focus on gendercide or sex selective abortion. It is amazing how the majority of folks just do not know that there are cultures who have, what is termed a “son preference”. This sex selective abortion has disrupted the gender balance in many nations, has made male dominated societies and has led to forced marriages, sexual trafficking, and violent gang rapes and estimates of up to 200 million missing girls. Abortion is responsible for 80% of those missing with strangling, starvation, ill-treatment, murder and and neglect counting for the rest.
I think it is hard for us in Canada to understand the reason why a girl child in the womb should be killed just because she is a girl child – but it is the case and sadly this cultural horror is being brought to North America. I was amazed last year when CBC showed its “sting” of entertainment ultrasound facilities and the apparant willingness for these places to inform parents of the sex of their child, even though thy knew full well that if the child was a girl she would be killed by abortion.
Political representatives of all stripes condemned the practice and even Prime Minister Harper was repelled by such a horror as killing a girl because she was a girl. 92% of Canadians at that time joined in the call for this practice to be banned in Canada. I t seemed that something might just be done. But wait a minute, no feminist group spoke out, the pro abortion lobby stayed pretty silent aside from saying that while they might not agree with the reason a woman chose abortion but she had every right to go ahead and do so. I thought at the time how very short-sighted a position that was protecting the so-called abortion choice of today’s women at the cost of the lives of the women of tomorrow.
In early 2013 the whole of Parliament was given an opportunity to proclaim a condemnation of sex selective abortion – but those who would rather protect abortion than girls took hard lines and the wonderful opportunity to stand together and condemn gender selection was lost – as is the way of cowards. Early in September this year the Crown Prosecution Service in England refused to persue prosecution of two abortionists – who practiced sex selection abortion – despite the fact that they said they had enough evidence to prosecute. It was stated that to prosecute “would not be in the public interest”.
You would wonder what could be more in the public interest than doctors willing to take money to kill a child by abortion just because she is a girl!!? The real problem is that we have become so desensitized to abortion we do not really equate it with “killing” per se but to the ending of a pregnancy and here lies the problem. We are also afraid of “offending” anyone but there are people in cultures here in Canada who may not know that their daughter can have a wonderful career just like their son. If they are concerned about who will care for them – here in Canada either child has the opportunity to make good and provide for them in the older years.
Other cultures see girls as a financial drain because of huge expected dowry’s and see boys as a means of income. Again, here in Canada these ancient ideologies do not hold water. There are many ways that all of us could ensure that these communities can be provided this information and hopefully avoid this awful practice of sex selection abortion. I think Canada’s largest problem is that we have tolerated killing of babies in the womb just because they are babies in the womb, for far too long. The phrase “those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” seems appropriate. We tolerate abortion for any or no reason yet are repelled by the someone’s reason being, that “it’s a girl”
Hopefully with the European Parliament Women’s Rights Committee calling across the world for governments to initiate legislation to stop gendercide there may be a political will to actually do something.
We assisted in the creation of a brilliant website www.defendgirls.ca I would encourage you to take a look because you will be shocked at the facts you will find there – so much so that you might actually do something about it!
