Sex Selection and Women’s Reproductive Rights
(sz) Responding with alarm to the U.S. Supreme Court decision permitting the banning of late-term abortions reproductive rights activists have insisted that any restrictions on a woman’s right to choose must be fought.
For instance South Carolina is considered legislation that would require pregnant women to undergo an ultrasound and view images of their embryo before being permitted to have an abortion. South Carolina already has the toughest climate for abortion rights in the United States, causing the number of clinics in that state to drop from 14 to 3 in ten years, with a 50% drop in abortions. Forcing women seeking abortions to view an ultrasound would presumably deter even more women from seeking them from the dwindling number of providers.
One would think that the obvious pro-choice position would be that a woman has a right to know the contents of her womb with any test she chooses, including ultrasound, but should not be forced to have one, just as she should have the right to continue or terminate her pregnancy with or without that information. But this is far from obvious to a bioconservative minority within reproductive rights activism.
Responding to the slowly shifting sex ratios in India and China where male-biased sex selective abortion is widely practiced a global bioconservative alliance has emerged to demand harsh punishment for providers of ultrasound and abortion in those countries. Some activists would like to see sex selective abortion banned worldwide. These demands are popular across the political spectrum, since religious conservatives welcome any restriction on reproductive freedom, and progressives have contempt for the patriarchal attitudes that lead to male preference. The language of millions of “missing girls” and widespread “foeticide” has equated sex selective abortion with the murder of girls and ethnic genocide. The argument is also advanced that the changing sex ratio in those countries will have bad consequences for women and social stability. more…
From: »IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies)«