Gendercide is the systematic killing of girls. Sex-selective abortion (female feticide) is defined as “an abortion undertaken for the purpose of eliminating a child of an undesired sex.” Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen estimated that as early as 1990, approximately 100 million women were missing worldwide due to sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, and other such barbaric practices. Current estimates now put that number at as many as 200 million missing women and girls globally.
Most people may think that gendercide or sex selection only takes place in China and India, which have been known for feticide and infanticide of girls because of a cultural preference for boys over girls. But studies show that this horrific practice is happening right here in America.
U.S. Census data and national vital statistics show that indeed, sex selection is a growing problem in America, with studies showing that some Americans are employing sex-selection techniques in their family planning decisions. A review of census and birth records by Professor Jason Abrevaya of the University of Texas showed that Americans have sex-selected thousands of baby girls.
Sex-selective abortion represents the most violent form of discrimination against women, often victimizing two women at one time: mother and daughter. Many women are coerced or forced by family or cultural pressure to have sex-selective abortions, and their daughters suffer the fatal consequences.
Many countries, such as the UK, have bans on sex-selective abortion. However, even though a majority of Americans oppose sex-selective abortion, and some states have enacted their own prohibitions, abortion based on gender is not illegal at the federal level in our country.
Investigations
Planned Parenthood
AUSTIN, TX
A Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Austin, TX, encouraged a woman to obtain a late-term abortion if it was confirmed that the baby she was carrying was a girl, rather than the boy she wanted.
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Following the first video’s release, Planned Parenthood issued the following statement:
Gender bias is contrary to everything our organization works for daily in communities across the country…Planned Parenthood condemns sex selection motivated by gender bias, and urges leaders to challenge the underlying conditions that lead to these beliefs and practices, including addressing the social, legal, economic, and political conditions that promote gender bias and lead some to value one gender over the other.
However, there was even more documentation coming that would show just how far the organization really is from condemning “sex selection motivated by gender bias.”
Planned Parenthood
NEW YORK, NY
Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger clinic in New York City counseled a woman — who said she wanted a sex-selective abortion if her preborn child was a girl — on how she could verify her child’s sex, and scheduled her for an abortion at a future date in case she was confirmed to be carrying a girl.
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Camelback Family Planning
PHOENIX, AZ
Tucson Women’s Center
TUCSON, AZ
Arizona is one of the few states in the nation that has laws protecting preborn girls from sex-selective abortion — committing one is a felony in Arizona. Despite these protections, however, Camelback Family Planning in Phoenix, and Tucson Women’s Center in Tucson, promised to ignore the law and coached a woman to lie on official paperwork to conceal the illegal abortion.
At the Tucson facility, the surgical assistant tells the woman, “We could lose our license,” but agrees to cover up her sex-selective abortion. “I’ll just forget about it,” he says, “But just be sure not to mention it” to the abortionist.
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Planned Parenthood
MAUI/HONOLULU, HI
A Planned Parenthood counselor in Maui, HI, tells a Live Action investigator who is requesting a sex-selective abortion that reasons for abortion are “really up to” the mother. Despite the obvious discrimination of female gendercide, a Planned Parenthood staffer at the Honolulu facility encourages the investigator that “it’s ok” to get multiple sex-based abortions if children conceived are females.
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A Woman’s Choice
RALEIGH, NC
Planned Parenthood
CHAPEL HILL, NC
A clinician at A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh encourages a Live Action investigator to get a sex-selective abortion, and even coaches her how to cover up the abortion. The staffer admits that the facility is willing to commit repeat sex-selection abortions, should the woman conceive another female child. Likewise, staffers at Planned Parenthood of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, confirm that they would facilitate repeated gender-based abortions.
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Studies
Where Have All the Girls Gone? by Mara Hvistendahl
More than 100 Million Girls are Missing by Amartya Sen study
The Lozier Institute poll, May 2012: 77% of respondents said that they would support a law banning abortion in cases where “the fact that the developing baby is a girl is the sole reason for seeking an abortion.”
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