Browsing Tag: Abortions

Motherhood is not an accident of biology. Somebody has sex with somebody. Somebody gets pregnant. And look – there is life! Birth is the beginning of a very long process. A child needs values. A child needs love. A child needs time and attention.

For those tuning into the news in the United States last week, a Senator in the Texas Legislature launched a 13 hour filibuster blocking the passage of a drastic anti-abortion bill.

Abortion and multiculturalism, two of the most contentious areas of Canadian public policy, were placed on a collision course Monday by the country’s leading medical journal.

The spread of sex-selective abortion is often framed as a simple case of modern science being abused by patriarchal, misogynistic cultures. Patriarchy is certainly part of the story, but as Hvistendahl points out, the reality is more complicated — and more depressing.

Surprising as it may sound but the girls have outnumbered boys in Pakistan. Despite the socio-cultural taboos associated with girl child like dowry, sexual abuse, weaker sex etc, the girl child were not aborted in certain areas of Pakistan like Southern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtonkhawa.

But so long as the choice is between abuse and honor; ridicule and prestige; vulnerability and security; people will choose honor, prestige, and security - Punjabis will choose sons over daughters through one form of violence or another. Women and men must fight against deeply ingrained prejudices.