Why does "pro-choice" have it in for women?

[Mornac]

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Sex-selective abortions moving to West with immigration, author says

By Sarah Delaney
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- Aborting unborn girls on account of their gender has been a documented trend in certain Asian countries for at least two decades. Now, according to an Italian biologist and author, the practice is also growing in the West.

Women and couples who emigrate from cultures where male children are deemed more prestigious and economically valuable "will often bring those same values to their new country," said Anna Meldolesi, author of "Never born: Why the world has lost 100 million women" ("Mai nate: Perche il mondo ha perso 100 milioni di donne"), in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service Jan. 22.

In 1990, Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen calculated at 100 million the number of women who, by the laws of nature, should be part of the world population but are not. The "missing women" in question, Meldolesi wrote, have been the victims of infanticide, intentional neglect of health and nutrition, and more recently, abortion on the basis of sex.

Inspired by studies of sex-selective abortion among Asian immigrants in North America, Meldolesi said she tried to find out if there was a similar trend in her own country of Italy.

Using four years of demographic data from ISTAT, the Italian statistics bureau, she found that the "sex ratio" of first-born children appeared to occur at the natural rate of about 105 males to 100 females, similar to the Italian population and other nationalities.

But when it came to second and third children, figures showed that the number of boys increased markedly -- with the disproportion as high as 119 to 100 -- indicating that parents had probably aborted female fetuses, Meldolesi said.

She concluded that sex selective abortion, or "feminine feticide," has been common among Italy's Chinese and Indian immigrant populations, and also, to a lesser extent, among Albanians.

A review in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, in January gave the book high marks for highlighting a "gigantic drama," and for recognizing that "it is very difficult to fight the battle for safer abortion and against gendercide at the same time."

Catholic moral teaching forbids abortion under any circumstances. Meldolesi, by contrast, supports legalized abortion. Yet she acknowledged in the interview that, "for those who are 'pro-choice' it becomes very problematic to find a coherent solution to this disgraceful phenomenon."

She said that resistance to limits on legal abortion "should not stop (supporters of legalized abortion) from seeing the consequences and realizing that there should be some changes in the rules."

People on both sides of the abortion issue should put aside differences to find solutions to a long-term problem with "very deep societal and cultural roots," she said.

Most important would be an effort to educate immigrant communities, many of whom come from highly patriarchal societies in which women are valued "only to have children and be mothers, preferably of boys," she said. Raising girls is seen as "a waste of time and resources" because they will eventually be married off and will take care of their husbands' parents in their old age, Meldolesi said.

Meldolesi points to South Korea as an example of a country where gendercide was once a serious problem, but where it has been effectively discouraged through educational campaigns, legislation and even soap operas that depict women as valuable, working members of society.

Other measures could include legislation that would prohibit health care workers from revealing the sex of a fetus before Italy's 12-week legal abortion period, Meldolesi said. But she noted that methods for ascertaining fetal gender at about seven weeks of pregnancy already exist, and their commercial availability is expected soon, promising to make the practice of gendercide only more common.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1200302.htm

[Mornac]

[vel]

As I understand it this is the only section of the Bible that describes what you have to do to get to heaven:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

   37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

   40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

   41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

   44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

   45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

   46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

[Mornac]

As I understand it this is the only section of the Bible that describes what you have to do to get to heaven:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

   37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

   40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

   41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

   44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

   45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

   46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

--Wow! I guess Reformed Judaism must be a bit more reformed than I thought.

[johnhp]

Why not just point out that there was already a law on the books addressing the issue Mornac is prevaricating about and no need for a second one?