canadians want legislation to regulate sex-specific abortion

[niyad]

Canadians Want Legislation to Regulate Sex-Specific Abortion

by Joel Boyce

A recent Angus-Reid poll reveals that a majority of Canadians are in favor of legislation restricting gender-based abortion. Somewhat counter-intuitively, women were more in favor of restricting abortion rights on this particular basis than men. Sixty percent of those polled (including both genders) supported such legislation, but 66 percent of women supported it.

Why ask this question all of a sudden, and in Canada, no less? The flashpoint seems to be an editorial last week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which claimed sex-specific abortion is a growing problem. The writer argued for withholding information on an unborn child’s sex until the 30th week.
. . . . .

Back to the editorial that, apparently, prompted this poll: what constitutes a “growing” problem? The lack of numbers makes it difficult to weigh in on this matter. It’s clear that many people find the idea of selectively aborting a fetus based on its sex offensive, even if they otherwise support a liberal interpretation of women’s reproductive rights. But what are the practical consequences? Is there a significant medical danger in the increase in early-term abortions? Or is it something else?
. . . . . .

According to this National Post article, many Canadians who take measures to plan the sex of a child are not preferentially valuing boys or girls more, but simply trying to balance their new child with the one(s) they already have. Many parents, it seems, want to have at least one boy and one girl, not just one or the other.

. . . .

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/canadians-want-legislation-to-regulate-sex-specific-abortion.html#ixzz1km6Doxa2

[HopeHoops]

1. Sex-specific? That's usually a female-oriented procedure.

I know, I know - I'm bad.

[niyad]

3. naughty, naughty

seriously, how many women go to their doctor and say "I want to abort because the fetus is the wrong sex"??

another oblique way of interfering with a woman's right to control her own body.

[etherealtruth]

5. I believe in a woman's right to choose

I don't believe this came out of no where for the Canadians, though ... I would need to research a little, but I believe they have had some concerns about this occurring within some groups (with a definite preference for males)... I don't want any legal limitations on a what a woman chooses to do with her body ... but, if these concerns are valid it does bring up the question of whether the state could or should intervene in some way (education?).

[HopeHoops]

7. I don't know about Canada, but it is a problem in India.

[TheWraith]

9. Also in China even more so.

Supposedly, it's also being done in Canada by people in those communities.

[HopeHoops]

10. It's so bad in some areas that there simply aren't enough women.

I fully support a woman's right to chose, but doing it simply because of gender is sad. What's next, hair or eye color?

[TheWraith]

13. As much as I find the general idea to be very disturbing and inappropriate...

There's also the terrible irony that these practices are probably going to benefit China and India in the long term. The female population of an area is what determines the population growth rate.

[HopeHoops]

15. They used to just kill the babies after they were born, so I wouldn't count on a big change.

Same result, different method. And I know they still kill female infants, but the subject line is only so long.

[jwirr]

11. And China also practiced this - don't know if it is still happening. When you are limited by the

state to two children it puts on pressure to determine the sex. That is what was happening in China.

[bluestateguy]

2. Mara Hvistendahl's book Unnatural Selection shows the social consequences of sex selective abortion

She is pro-choice and opposes prohibitive new laws, but nonetheless there are still consequences when a large number of girls are aborted.

[niyad]

4. the article mentioned the problems china is beginning to face, and other countries as well, where

males are valued over females.

[Spazito]

6. This has to do with a small number of women travelling to...

U.S. clinics for an abortion solely based on the sex of the fetus, primarily if the fetus is female. It is primarily driven by a cultural difference.

Any legislation like that proposed would not pass the Constitutional test, would not be upheld by Canada's Supreme Court and rightly so, imo.

"A challenge could be based on contravention of a number of enshrined rights, including discrimination on the grounds of the right to security of the person, that women have the right to continue only wanted pregnancies.

There are also pockets among some of Canada's immigrant Asian communities that hold strong religious beliefs that a male heir is necessary to carry on the family name and to perform certain rites to ensure deceased parents have a proper afterlife.

"And, of course, this could trigger a Charter claim of denying religious convictions or violating the anti-discrimination provision of the Charter," Dickens said. "So any legislation could trigger a Charter argument on that sort of ground.""

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20120116/female-fetus-abortion-kale-120116/

The article to which I posted a link is about a call to limit disclosure of the sex of the fetus until 30 weeks but it contains much more info on the bigger issue as well.

Either a woman has the right to privacy which includes the right to her own body or she does not. Women HAVE this right in Canada and any legislation to curtail that in any way is a slippery slope, imo.

Much as I disagree with the choices being made by a few women in this regard, it is their right, period.

[niyad]

8. thank you so much for this additional information

[laundry_queen]

14. I agree.

I disagree vehemently with the choices these women are making, however, I would NEVER want any kind of 'rule' that would limit that woman's right to not continue with a pregnancy that is clearly unwanted. In fact, I wrote on another thread, how pissed I am they are not letting women know the sex of the child (through ultrasound) they are carrying in BC because of this reason. They refused to tell me at my 20 week scan. If a woman wants to know and gets an abortion because of it, that is her business. I think education campaigns are more productive than limiting any kind of abortion rights.

Thanks for posting that information about the Charter Spazito.

[hughee99]

12. A woman's body, her choice. The government has no business here

as long as the woman wants an abortion.