There is a debate these days over a suggestion by a leading Canadian medical journal to withhold information about the sex of your fetus in an effort to curb sex-selection abortions in this country. I am both delighted and amused.
Delighted because I welcome any and all debate on abortion. We’re kind of overdue… But I’m also amused, and not because the issue is funny. Not remotely. But it is weird to see the efforts on the part of nice polite people to square a logical circle that just won’t lend itself to the exercise. It’s kind of cute to hear people try to explain why abortion in general ought to be legal because women should have the right to choose what they grow in their tummies, but at the same time insist that this choice shouldn’t include killing a baby just because it’s a girl.
Why not? We let women kill babies just because they have Down Syndrome. Or Spina Bifida. Or a cleft palate – seriously, this happens. Plenty of women and girls also use abortion as a form of birth control, and we let it happen without much fuss. We also don’t seem to mind when women choose to kill their baby because the timing of the pregnancy isn’t quite right. If they’d gotten pregnant in six months or something, that’d be fine. But not now! Have to finish that degree first, right?
Seems to me aborting a baby because the timing isn’t right or the father’s an idiot or because the mother couldn’t be bothered to use a better form of birth control is even worse than aborting a baby because she’s a girl. At least parents have a reason to prefer having a boy – it’s a reason that has no place in a modern, equal society like Canada. But at least it’s not trivial.
Sex-selection abortion is a real problem. And yes, it’s happening here. If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend the book “Unnatural Selection” – it will give you chapter and verse. But you know, the reason sex-selection abortion is wrong is because all abortions are wrong. Trying to claim otherwise leads to nothing more impressive than a few amusingly illogical contortions.