The article titled "Infanticide, Abortion Responsible for 60 Million Girls Missing in Asia" is well worth reading!
Female Infanticide: "The overt killing or neglect until death of female babies. It may also take the form of preferential abortion" (as defined here)."The weapons being used against them are prenatal sex selection, abortion, and female infanticide--the systematic killing of girls soon after they are born."
The UN is saying that it is because of these practices that are responsible for 60 MILLION missing girls in Asia.
"Twenty-five million men in China currently can’t find brides because there is a shortage of women."
China is facing a serious, serious gender imbalance if things keep going as they are going. By having this imbalance, a lot of violence stems from this situation. Women are taken by force, against their will to be pushed into marriage. I'm still trying to find a link to a video I watched in one of my classes, but there was a story of a very young woman who was taken from her village and forced to marry a 70 year old man who was very ill and couldn't find a bride to take care of him. He would beat her and confine her to the house so she would not run away. She was raped repeatedly until she became pregnant. Luckily, she was able to conceive a baby boy (I wonder what he would have done to her if she had a girl?). The documentary goes on to tell the story about how she was rescued. A man dedicated to finding lost women did a lot of research and was able to find the missing woman. He went to the village she was living in and rescued her. They tried to take the woman's son with her, but the village people were throwing stones at them and they had to escape.
This imbalance also leads to a commercial sex trade. The UN's 2005 report states "that up to 800,000 people being trafficked across borders each year, and as many as 80 percent are women and girls, most of whom are exploited"
"Historically infanticide was something that was practiced in poor places in China," Mosher said. "But when the one-child policy came into effect we began to see in the wealthy areas of China, what had never been done before in history — the killing of little girls."
It's interesting that the demographics for female infanticide have crossed through all social classes and rankings. The One-Child Policy demands that families who have more than 1 child must pay fines in order to keep their 2nd child. Some families have the money to continuously pay the fines, but usually the poor do not. They must take measures to conceal the pregnancy, and when the child is born, it must be abandoned. It's interesting that wealthy families are still killing baby girls even though they have the money to pay the fines. I think having a second child creates a stigma for that woman and family within the village--especially if it is a girl.
I really liked this quote from Wanda Franz, the president of the National Right to Life Committee:
"We feel it's a serious problem that everybody should be concerned about and aware of...This is a form of abortion that, from our point of view is especially egregious. Abortion is claimed to help women; obviously in these cases, females are the direct victims, because women in these cultures are not valued"
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