Unwelcome import: Sex selective abortion
I'd read with dismay about people using ultrasound in China and India to selectively abort females, but was unaware till now that a similar phenomenon may occur here in the US. AuntMinnie.com reports on research by G. Sharat Lin, PhD about the association between birth-gender rations (BGR) and access to 4D "keepsake" ultrasound facilities.
Lin found that Asian ethnic groups in Santa Clara County who were known to have a traditional gender preference for boys had clearly lower female-to-male birth ratios than those Asian ethnic groups who did not have a preference.
"Mothers born in China, India, and Vietnam [have female-to-male birth ratios] that are well below normal, and those from Pakistan are much closer to normal," Lin toldAuntMinnie.com. "Breaking it down by ethnic group is showing us that this is not simply noise or some kind of a random fluctuation. These are showing up where we expect them, in the ethnic groups where there is a cultural preference for boys."
Elsewhere in California, however, counties that have continuing proliferation of keepsake ultrasound centers experienced alarmingly low BGRs among Asians in 2010, Lin said.
Low birth-gender ratios among Asians in urban counties in 2010 were as follows:
- Sacramento: 888
- Los Angeles: 889
- San Francisco: 919
- Riverside: 919
- San Joaquin: 927
"While we still don't have a direct proof of cause and effect, we see a correlation that in counties like San Joaquin County and Sacramento County, [there's] a downward trend in BGRs, and at the same time, continued proliferation of these keepsake ultrasound centers," he said.
The findings disturb me for the same reasons the practice is disturbing when it occurs outside the US. In addition, I worry that the findings have the potential to restrict access to abortion for everyone by pointing to signs of abuse.