We westerners like to think sex-selection is an Asian problem. We tell ourselves that girls are being aborted in the millions because of China’s one-child policy. But if there is one thing the reader takes away from Mara Hvistendahl’s ground breaking book, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, is that sex selection is not just an Chinese problem. It is prevalent in other Asian nations without a one-child policy, like India.
And it is spreading into Europe.
Hvistendahl warned us of skewed sex ratios in Albania and other Balkan countries. A LifeSiteNews report indicates that the West is finally taking notice of Albania’s problem with sex-selection:
The Council of Europe has revealed that sex-selective abortion is widely practiced in Albania and the result is a growing gulf between the numbers of boys and the number of girls. Recent statistics show that for every 100 Albanian girls 112 boys are born. In natural demographic growth, the number of girls usually slightly exceeds the number of boys.
The Council of Europe warns that sex-selection, once associated mainly with Asian countries, has become popular in Europe, particularly in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
“Traditionally Albanian families have favoured boys over girls for two main reasons: the inheritance of the family name and the prospect of boys growing up to become breadwinners,” a 2005 report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said.
Abortion in Albania was legalized in 1995 after the fall of the communist government. It is now available on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
That ratio of 112 boys to 100 girls is as bad as any Asian nation.
Progressives want to blame the culture for prizing boys over girls but the real problem has always been abortion. It is the legalized abortion that is making missing a Y chromosome such a dangerous prospect in so many of the world’s cultures.
In fact, it is legalized abortion that makes any cultural bias deadly. Once scientists claim to find the “obesity gene” those American fetuses predisposed to being fat adults better pray they have a pro-life mother. When it is announced, whether accurately or not, that sexual preference can be discovered in the womb, then any fetuses that might possibly be homosexual better hope their parents believe in the sanctity of every human life.
Of course, our Western culture has already permitted a prenatal seek-and-destroy mission against anyone who has a genetic disease or disorder. And we already know that the majority of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority neighborhoods.
It is time for the world to realize that no matter what the culture, abortion magnifies whatever bigotry festers in society. We cannot ensure protection for girls, or any other “undesirable” until abortion, the greatest destroyer of innocent human life, is brought to an end.
February 21, 2012 at 2:43 am
Actually, the natural ratio is 105 boys to 100 girls – boys have always slightly exceeded boys. It's never been the other way around.
February 21, 2012 at 4:16 am
Anything over 105 boys to 100 girls is considered unnatural and skewed. 112 boys to 100 girls is a dangerous ratio.
February 21, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Yes, I don't disagree. However, LifeSite reported: " In natural demographic growth, the number of girls usually slightly exceeds the number of boys." This is blatantly false. My problem with LifeSite is that they often make mistakes like that and it really impeeds their efficacy as a serious news site.
February 21, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Oh nice catch! It is true that sex selection is spreading into the Balkans also reported by Hvistendahl. I was noting that others were beginning to take notice as well.
Thanks for pointing that out!
February 22, 2012 at 4:12 am
Hvistendahl's "Where Have All The Girls Gone?" was truly sobering on way too many levels.
February 22, 2012 at 5:41 am
Is it problem in these countries because the "native" population is doing it, or because of immigrant populations? In Canada there was something in the mainstream media a couple of months ago about with holding sex identification to the mother (and whether or not it's against the woman's right to know for medical purposes… whatever…) to prevent sex selection. It's apparently very prelevant in some neighbourhoods where there are large immigrant populations that traditionally have a strong preference for boys.
February 22, 2012 at 9:51 pm
The demographics of Albania are 95% of the population is native with the other 5% from other Balkan countries like Greece. Religiously 70% are Muslim and the other 30% are Christian. So immigration of Asians is not the likely cause of the drastic shift in sex ratios. It is a cultural preference made deadly by legalization of abortion.
February 28, 2012 at 2:30 pm
It is the unfortunate European love of the euphemism "immigrant" that prevents you from seeing why these populations abort their girls.
They are predominantly Muslim locations, and girls are worthless.
The "spread" in Europe comes from the marvelous notion that Muslims in England, France, Sweden, etc. would make great health care providers. If you think the pressure is great for a Muslim woman to provide a son is great in a Muslim land, where the system is set up to oppress and shelter and smother girls' desires, imagine what the pressure is in a Western land, where every Muslim man knows that any daughters run the risk of "Westernization" (que horror!) and that he might have to off them in a less-than-legal way at great expense to his carefully carved out life.
Girls are less than worthless in the West to Muslims. Not that they don't love their daughters. They just don't prefer them in the first place. And the pro-abort West is happy to oblige them.
Each one of these places listed is Muslim. The Canadian and British problem is Muslim, ad nauseum. "Immigrant" my tookus. The Albanians support the premise, not disprove it. They are all "native" (as native as any area is after having been dominated centuries ago by Muslim invaders) yet they somehow find girl babies worthless. All that and being "European" too!