It seems there may finally be an end to the U.K.’s gendercide saga.
A 2012 Daily Telegraph undercover investigation revealed that baby girls were being targeted for abortion, simply for being girls. The investigation found evidence of two U.K. doctors who were committing gendercide, at the request of the babies’ parents. And yet, despite the clear facts — and a law that appeared to outlaw gender-based abortions — the government refused to prosecute the doctors.
The reason?
It was not “in the public interest” to prosecute.
Now, however, Parliament is set to amend the government’s Serious Crime Bill, making it unquestionably illegal to abort babies in the U.K. based on gender. Since MPs across the main parties have agreed to fast-track the amendment, the vote should take place by May 2015.
According to The Daily Telegraph, “adding a clause to the Serious Crime Bill, explicitly outlawing gender abortion would end any uncertainty over the law.” Any doctors discovered committing gendercide in the future — assuming the amendment passes — could be prosecuted without questions of uncertainty.
MP Fiona Bruce.
It appears that Parliament is ensuring that gendercide becomes an issue of “public interest” so that the U.K. does not go the way of China or India, where the gendercide of baby girls in particular runs rampant, thanks to both laws and culture.
MP Fiona Bruce, one of the main supporters of the amendment, wrote online for The Daily Telegraph, telling the stories of women who were forced or pressured into aborting their daughters. She explains that gendercide must be stopped now in the U.K.
[T]he reality is that sex-selective abortion is happening in the UK.
We know this partly because UK women are coming forward in increasing numbers to tell their stories, and partly due to the existence of authoritative, peer-reviewed research which has found evidence of sex imbalances in birth ratios in some UK populations – most notably a paper authored by Dr Sylvie Dubuc of the University of Oxford which dug deep into the data and found strong circumstantial evidence that sex-selective abortions were common in certain communities. …
I find the insistence of those who persist in claiming that there is no evidence for sex-selective abortion in the UK extremely disrespectful to the women who have come forward. Clearly, we have a problem. Even the investigations undertaken by this paper showing doctors agreeing to allow sex-selective abortions have shown that we have a problem. …
The time has come to face up to the truth. Sex-selective abortion is a reality in the UK. We can no longer ignore it.
Equally valuable – no matter the gender, no matter the stage of life.
And although we in the pro-life movement know it’s nowhere near enough to stop gender-based abortions — because every unborn child is equally valuable, regardless of the reason for abortion — we can also be confident that saving a few babies from death is the goal of the U.K. amendment.
It’s a goal we can wholeheartedly support.
