Up to 12 million girls aborted in India over last 30 years, new study says
Up to 12 million girls were aborted over the last three decades in India by parents that tended to be richer and more educated, a large study in India found, and researchers warned that the figure could rise with falling fertility rates.
The missing daughters occurred mostly in families which already had a first born daughter. Although the preference for boys runs across Indian society, the abortions were more likely to be carried out by educated parents who were aware of ultrasound technology and who could afford abortions.
“The number of girls being aborted is increasing and may have reached 12 million with the lower estimate of 4 million over the last three decades,” said lead author Professor Prabhat Jha at the Center for Global Health Research in Toronto, Canada.
Jha said the preference for boys in Indian society remains firmly in place and the reason why abortions of female fetuses were occurring more among richer and educated parents was because they could afford to do so. “The preference for boys doesn’t differ between rich and poor, it is similar. But the means to ensure a boy is greater among the educated and the rich,” Jha said.
Read the full story by Tan Ee Lyn here.
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San Francisco may vote on banning male circumcision
A group opposed to male circumcision said they have collected more than enough signatures to qualify a proposal to ban the practice in San Francisco as a ballot measure for November elections.
But legal experts said that even if it were approved by a majority of the city’s voters, such a measure would almost certainly face a legal challenge as an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of religion.
Circumcision is a ritual obligation for infant Jewish boys, and is also a common rite among Muslims, who account for the largest share of circumcised men worldwide.
The leading proponent of a ban, Lloyd Schofield, 59, acknowledged circumcision is widely socially accepted but he said it should still be outlawed.
“It’s excruciatingly painful and permanently damaging surgery that’s forced on men when they’re at their weakest and most vulnerable,” he told Reuters.
Read the full story by Gabrielle Saveri here.
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Religious freedom, um, cuts both ways. The child also has a right to grow up to choose his own religion when he is old enough, and not have one cut into his flesh before he can resist. We already acknowledge this with a complete ban on female cutting, no matter how minor, with no exemption for the parents’ religion or culture. In Malaysia and Indonesia, millions of girls are cut (in a much less gruesome way than in Africa) in the name of Islam.
Only 3% of US circumcision is Jewish, and this ban, based on ethics and human rights, is not aimed at any particular reason for doing it.
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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