The history of the United States includes examples of both sex discrimination and race discrimination. The people of the United States ultimately responded in the strongest possible legal terms by enacting constitutional amendments correcting elements of such discrimination. Women, once subjected to sex discrimination that denied them the right to vote, now have suffrage guaranteed by the 19th amendment. African-Americans, once subjected to race discrimination through slavery that denied them equal protection of the laws, now have that right guaranteed by the 14th amendment. The elimination of discriminatory practices has been and is among the highest priorities and greatest achievements of American history.
Would you be surprised to find that the above quote was taken from a proposed bill that would limit abortions? That’s right: the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (H.R. 3541) was introduced last December “[t]o prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex or race.”
The proposed bill cites a 1990 Harvard University report that “estimated that more than 100 million women were ‘demographically missing’ from the world as early as 1990 due to sexist practices, including sex-selection abortion.” It goes on to explain that “[m]any experts believe sex-selection abortion is the primary cause. Current estimates of women missing from the world range in the hundreds of millions.”
While a bill like this is obviously necessary in some parts of the world, is it necessary for America? Are abortions really being performed in America on the basis of gender?
The congressional findings for the bill reported two different areas of gender-based abortions. One group involves people who trace their heritage back to a country that shows a strong preference for male descendants.
The evidence strongly suggests that some Americans are exercising sex-selection abortion practices within the United States consistent with discriminatory practices common to their country of origin, or the country to which they trace their ancestry. While sex-selection abortions are more common outside the United States, the evidence reveals that female feticide is also occurring in the United States.
The other group involves those who come to the United States for the purpose of a gender-based abortion:
Public statements from within the medical community reveal that citizens of other countries come to the United States for sex-selection procedures that would be criminal in their country of origin. Because the United States permits abortion on the basis of sex, the United States may effectively function as a `safe haven’ for those who seek to have American physicians do what would otherwise be criminal in their home countries–a sex-selection abortion, most likely late-term.
It’s horrible to think that children are being aborted on the basis of gender – but more so that it’s happening in a country where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are considered unalienable rights and where everyone should be treated equally. How ironic that while abortion is touted as a women’s right, there is a disproportionate number of females who will never be receive a chance to experience life.
