Western Governments Are Blamed for Asia's Shortage of Women

[FreakinDJ]

Western Governments Are Blamed for Asia's Shortage of Women

Ujala Sehgal

In her new book "Unnatural Selection," Science writer Mara Hvistendahl examines how the trend toward choosing boys over girls through sex-selective abortions has spread through the developing world, particularly in Asia. Coining the term "Generation XY," Hvistendahl provides the grim results of sex selection: while the natural sex ratio at birth is 105 boys born for every 100 girls, in India the figure has risen to 112 boys and in China, 121. The Chinese city of Lianyungang actually recorded 163 boys per 100 girls in 2007.

The shortage of women is already giving rise to deep societal problems. New markets have been created for women in Asia, including wedding agencies that arrange marriages between South Korean men and women often from poorer nearby countries like Vietnam, that now account for 11% of all marriages in South Korea. There is also a growing practice of child marriage in China, where wealthier families buy young girls to secure wives for their sons early. And with so many surplus men (e.g., up to a fifth of men will be single in northwestern India by 2020), she suggests that the excess testosterone could lead to raised levels of crime and violence.

<snip>

Amniocentesis and ultrasound scans have had largely positive applications in the west, where they have been used to detect fetal abnormalities. But exported to Asia and eastern Europe they have been intricately linked to an explosion of sex selection and a mushrooming of female abortions. Hvistendahl claims western governments actively promoted abortion and sex selection in the developing world, encouraging the liberalization of abortion laws and subsidizing sales of ultrasounds as a form of population control.

<snip>

In 1979 China signed a $50m four-year deal with a UN body designed to help it control its spiralling population through family planning. It was the largest foreign aid package Beijing had accepted in almost 20 years. But the funds became entwined in China's one-child policy that was just taking hold, and instead of sponsoring an education drive for small families, the money was used to pay for posters in Chinese villages proclaiming "You can abort it! But you cannot give birth to it."

[aquart]

1. China, your abandoned daughters are in designer strollers on the West Side of Manhattan.

You didn't want 'em. We did.

[lunatica]

2. The law of unintended consequences

This one wasn't hard to see coming. I remember when China limited one child per couple few decades ago. Everyone knew that boys are preferred there and there were people who spoke out about it then.

[FreakinDJ]

4. I would like to many more countries adopt a 1 child policy

99.999% of our environmental and economic problems are cause by a over populated planet

although I am not in favor of this Gender Selction

[MH1]

11. I agree on both counts.

[lunatica]

17. There was a short time in US history in the 60s and 70s when massive

education about overpopulation worked. We actually had a period of zero population growth for a while where young couples were only having one or two children. Just enough to replace themselves. It all went the away after Reagan took office.

[FreakinDJ]

22. BINGO

Reagan - the unfortunate gift that just keeps on giving

We also (through the UN) funded many overseas programs to help stem over population. ALL of that was undone when Reagan entered office and created the "Moral Majority" (which btw was neither moral nor a majority) who promptly took up the anti-abortion stance and demanded all such activities be defunded

[Warren DeMontague]

35. if by "BINGO" you mean "bullshit", you're absolutely right.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met_y=sp_dyn_tfrt_in&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=us+fertility+rate

[FreakinDJ]

37. Your "Bullshit" link is not working

can you at least give us a little "Cut and paste"

BTW: by "UN funded" I was obviously referring to programs conducted overseas set up by JFK/Johnson

[Warren DeMontague]

38. I got there by googling "US Fertility rate". But here's a jpg of the graph.

[seabeyond]

40. thank you warren. i was pretty sure this was the case. then to honestly address those

that are actually have a number of children, well on du, that would be class warfare.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Actually, the so-called 'population problem' in the US is due to immigration

the simple fact is, that when economically secure people with a high degree of social and religious autonomy have reproductive freedom and access to contraception, they self-regulate their reproductive rates just fine on their own.

I know, it's not what the the folks who fantasize that the 'population problem' is all 'yuppie breeders in SUVs' want to hear.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Yay totalitarianism!!!

How about we start with the countries with the highest fertility rates and work our way down, then? Sound good to you?

[JVS]

25. But this makes the one child policy work even better.

To simplify things. 1,000,000,000 people having 1 child each in 500,000,000 couples yields way more children than the same group split into 400,000,000 couples due to lack of women.

[get the red out]

3. Yea, the ultrasound machines did this on their own

So who was it that CHOOSE to use these machines to selectively abort girls? Machines don't operate themselves or make decisions.

The Chinese culture has a preference for girls, always has.

[seabeyond]

5. ya. the way the article mosied into the blame. i that it was expertly done. even read to hubby.

though western countries have seen the advantages of ultrasound.....

on edit... it is the preference to boys that is the issue. ass backwards.

[Darth_Kitten]

7. Preference for girls?

don't you mean boys? ;)

[get the red out]

39. Yea, sorry

[Book Lover]

6. link? (nm)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. To blame medical technology for their own moral failings and bias is specious

[Mz Pip]

13. This has been going on

long before medical technology could determine the sex of a baby. To decide it's the fault of the West and medical technology really is bull.

[FreakinDJ]

16. Before the Technology they left baby girls to die on the Hillside

That has been a long established historical fact so blaming the technology is ludicrous

[Posteritatis]

19. It's easier and absolves them of responsibility, though, so they blame it anyway

It's the exact same reason people on this side of the pond are always filled with so much rage at the offensive thing du jour with technology.

[Arkansas Granny]

9. Is there any evidence to support this statement?

"Hvistendahl claims western governments actively promoted abortion and sex selection in the developing world, encouraging the liberalization of abortion laws and subsidizing sales of ultrasounds as a form of population control."

Please post a link to the article.

[Book Lover]

12. Found it myself

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/06/are-western-governments-blame-asias-shortage-women/38978/

on edit: and a link to the Guardian article that prompted the Atlantic article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/17/sex-selection-rise-generation-xy?INTCMP=SRCH

[Arkansas Granny]

30. Thanks for the link. However, neither article supports the OP's statement

that Western governments introduced the technology in an effort to facilitate sex selective abortions.

[Odin2005]

29. It's hysterical anti-West bullshit, it sounds like to me.

[entanglement]

31. To be fair, western governments are responsible for much else, but certainly not gender

selective abortions.

[MH1]

10. Maybe if women are more scarce, they will be more valued.

I'm not certain that would be a bad thing. (thinking of things like acid thrown in faces, laws against driving an voting, etc)

(although I am sure it is fraught with undesirable consequences)

[InvisibleTouch]

14. That was my thought as well. The pendulum will swing back the other way. n/t

[KittyWampus]

15. That's what I thought BUT- it seems they have become a commodity. To be bought from poorer countries

So they are valued more highly- as objects to be procured.

Hard to change a mindset.

[lunatica]

18. but lucky for those girls from poorer countries

This will be another of those big lessons for China. Like the Great Leap Forward. I'm sure they remember that tragedy. This one is no different and will have repercussions for decades.

[FreakinDJ]

20. A Good Woman has always been a hard fought commodity

there are no geographic lines in that issue

Before internet - fresh immigrants to the New World (America) would write home and ask Aunt Sally to hook them up with a girl from the old country - A girl just like Mom

[FLPanhandle]

21. LOL

I've seen some convoluted logic to blame different world problems on the West, but this one is probably in the top 10 for being ridiculous.

[jwirr]

23. Isn't China the country that started determining the sex of the fetus

in order to abort the girls? Too bad for them.

[wuushew]

24. The natural ratio is also unfair and unworkable

Societal happiness is better served with a greater number of women than men. I often wonder what it would have been like to live in France after WWI.

[RandySF]

26. Shortage of women, my ass

When a society grows and everyone finds opportunity, marriage becomes less of a necessity. Some blame sex selection, but many Chinese men complain that women are getting more picky and seeking potential mates who already own houses or apartments.

[FreakinDJ]

27. As long as they do that BEFORE they get married

as opposed to leaving Husband No1 for Husband No2 because he has more money a wealth and already has an apartment or house then i don't have a problem with it

[Odin2005]

28. RIIIGHT. their societies' own misogyny has NOTHING to do with it!

:eyes:

[JI7]

32. it's the fault of the people themselves who do this, and India is worse than China

because at least in India they don't have a law that limits the number of kids.

i will take joy in all the families where the precious sons wont be able to find a wife . and hopefully those families die off without leaving behind others who carry on the shit legacy.

[Skidmore]

34. Oh, please.

What a crock. These people have no will of their own, moral or otherwise? Only Americans can sow corruption and moral decay, I see. Only Americans can give the poor peoples of other nations technology to abuse.

For crying out loud.