Woman comes to doctor for sex-selection abortion

Dr. Roxana Chapman describes how a woman came to her requesting an abortion because her baby was a girl. The woman was of Indian descent. Chapman describes the woman, Sunita, as “a sophisticated and Anglicized young lady attired in a smart trouser suit.” Chapman recounts what happened. The woman said:

“This is my third pregnancy. I have two daughters and would like a son. I just couldn’t face having another daughter.” This request came in such a natural way as to make me suppose that she thought I fully understood how important gender selection was for her…

She said that she was a Hindu and believed in reincarnation. She was also a vegetarian and did not eat meat because it involved taking animal life which she held to be sacred. She finally expressed the view that there was no law against abortion in Hinduism…

It is interesting to note that during the same month six other Indian patients attended my consulting rooms with similar requests. Their stories were all somewhat alike, and I’ve chosen just one as an illustration. With all these patients I was faced with a similar dilemma.”

Dr. Roxana Chapman Abortion: The Patient’s and the Doctor’s Dilemma (Barham Press, 2007) 44 – 45, 47

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Fertility Center Director supports choosing baby’s sex

Dr. Jamie Grifo, program director for New York University’s Fertility Center, runs two clinics that do embryo screening. They allow couples to choose certain characteristics for their children.  This process allows sex selection for couples who want a girl or a boy.

Dr. Jamie Grifo defends this by saying:

“For someone who has two girls and wants to have a boy, so each sibling can grow up with brother and sister, what’s wrong with that?”

Pam Belluck “If You Really, Really Wanted a Girl …” The New York Times August 20, 2011

Although this is not sex selection abortion, the fact that couples seek out Grifo’s services show that some parents want to control the sex of their children. Would these couples abort a baby of the “wrong” sex?

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New York Times: some couples choose the sex of their babies

In a New York Times article, doctors who do fertility treatments say some couples want to create a baby of a certain sex. The article says:

“There is evidence that some Americans want to choose their babies’ sex. At the Fertility Institutes, a set of clinics in Los Angeles, New York and Guadalajara, Mexico, 85 percent of roughly 500 couples each year seek sex selection, although three-quarters of them come from overseas, said Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, the medical director.”

The article also quotes Dr. Steinberg, whose clinics determine sex through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, an embryo screening:

“It’s jumped over the past four years. If a woman calls to make the appointment, the couple almost always wants a female. If a man calls, they almost always want a male.”

Pam Belluck “If You Really, Really Wanted a Girl …” The New York Times August 20, 2011

These parents choose to implant embryos of the preferred gender and dispose of the ones of the “wrong” gender.

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Doula tells of woman who wanted boy, aborted her girl

Lauren Mitchell is an abortion doula who was training other abortion doulas. She gave a series of scenarios that she says she encountered in her abortion work. The writer of the article was another abortion doula who is going through the training:

“A woman who says she’d like to do another ultrasound to see if it’s definitely a girl, because she’ll only keep it if it isn’t….“What do you assume?” Mitchell asked of each case. “How can you be supportive?” We talked about what would be hard for us to overcome, things we might say or do and how we might feel. I felt embarrassed by my assumptions, and the limits of my compassion. I judged these women on the worthiness of their reasons (“Would she really only keep a boy?” I wondered) and found myself questioning why those who come in for late-term abortions had waited so long to decide.

Alex Ronan “My Year As an Abortion DoulaThe Cut SEPTEMBER 14, 2014

18 weeks- this is about the time when an ultrasound can first show if a baby is a boy or girl
18 weeks- this is about the time when an ultrasound can first show if a baby is a boy or girl
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Preference for sons documented in studies

From the book The Tentative Pregnancy: How Amniocentesis Changes the Experience of Motherhood, in which the author describes studies showing a preference for sons among US families:

“The libraries are piled high with studies showing that both women and men prefer boys to girls as their first child. In three child families, they prefer two boys and a girl to two girls and a boy. This finding shows up in surveys when the question is posed abstractly, say, to college students about the “ideal family.” It shows up in action when we see that all girl families are more likely to go on to a next pregnancy that are families with the same number of children but including a son; and when we see shorter birth intervals following the birth of a daughter than following a son.

The existence of son preference is further substantiated in the more detailed studies of women’s experiences with pregnancy and early motherhood. Myra Leifer, a psychologist who closely followed 19 women through their first pregnancies, found that 14 of them reported a preference for a boy and two hoped to have a girl. Three women expressed no clear preference. Ann Oakley, interviewing 60 women in depth and repeatedly throughout their first pregnancies, found less willingness to report boy preference ahead of time. 54% said they wanted a boy, 22% a girl, and 25% said they didn’t mind which it was. But she found a very great difference once the baby arrived. The women said they were unwilling to admit a preference beforehand, but once the babies were born, 93% of the mothers of sons said that they were pleased with the sex of their babies, and only 55% of the mothers of daughters said they were pleased.

In all of the reported instances where sex selection techniques are offered… It is boys people try to achieve.” ”

Sources cited:

Myra Leifer, Psychological Effects of Motherhood: A Study a First Pregnancy (New York: Praeger, 1980) 84

Ann Oakley, Becoming a Mother (New York: Schocken Books, 1980) 118

Both the studies above show a preference for sons among Americans.  This preference for sons might lead to sex-selection abortions.

Barbara Katz Rothman. The Tentative Pregnancy: How Amniocentesis Changes the Experience of Motherhood (New York: WW Norton & Company, 1993) 133 – 134

could be aborted due to preference for sons
18 weeks. Around the time sex can be determined via ultrasound. Abortions for sex selection would happen at this time or later
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Better to “snuff the life” of a baby if she is the wrong sex

On the Indian custom of sex selection abortion:

“Better to snuff a life at birth than to suffer lifelong misery.”

Sakuntala Narasimban “The Unwanted Sex” New Internationalist February 1993, 240

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Pro-abortion writer tells pro-choicers to ‘get over’ sex selection abortions

A pro-choicer writing about how her fellow pro-choicers should not oppose sex selection abortions:

“Also, let’s just remember that we are talking about fetuses. No matter how many ultrasound pics get posted to Facebook, these are fetuses with female genitals or male genitals—not little girls and little boys. If pro-choicers object to aborting because of the sex of the fetus, aren’t we then saying that abortion is “murdering” girls? Aren’t we basically arguing that a fetus is not a blank slate but a future possibility? That is not the case to make if your goal is to protect abortion rights. Gulp for a second if you must, then get over it.”

Allison Benedikt “Why Pro-Choicers Should Be OK With Sex-Selection Abortions” Slate MAY 31 2012

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Clinic worker tells patients they won’t do sex selection abortions

An abortion clinic worker from the biggest chain of clinics in Australia talks about when  women come in and ask for sex selection abortions:

“It’s very rare, and we have to say (to the patient) we don’t provide abortion on the basis of gender.

But there would be nothing to stop a woman from going elsewhere and giving a different reason.”

“Couples expecting girls ‘demand abortions’ because they want boys, say obstetricians” News Limited (Australia) APRIL 28, 2013

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Husband insists couple will abort baby girl, he wanted a boy

couple in Melbourne aborted their baby after discovering at 19 weeks they were having a girl.  They wanted a boy.

GP, Dr Mark Hobart who was asked for referral to an abortionist:

“The parents were upfront and told me that was the reason for the abortion. I was dumbfounded.  It was the husband who did all the talking – he was so insistent.”

The couple aborted their baby girl.

“Couples expecting girls ‘demand abortions’ because they want boys, say obstetricians” News Limited (Australia) APRIL 28, 2013

19 weeks
19 weeks
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Director of abortion chain supports sex selection abortions

“We either support women’s capacity to decide, or we don’t. You can’t be pro-choice except when you don’t like the choice, because that’s not pro-choice at all.”

Ann Furedi, head of a chain of abortion clinics (BPAS) in England, defending sex selection abortions

Nearly 200,000 abortions in England and Wales are now carried out each year, and abortion ends more than one in five of all pregnancies.

Some 55,000 terminations are performed by BPAS

CHRIS PLEASANCE “‘You CAN abort a baby because of its sex’: Outrage at comments by boss of Britain’s biggest terminations clinic” The Daily Mail 17 September 2013

 

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