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NY Times: Abortion in India Is Tipping Scales Sharply Against girlsFrom: Joanne Bulley (islesannie@yahoo.com)Mon Apr 23 22:58:24 2001
To open a new topic - the following is part of an article in yesterday's New York Times. I am not surprised - but even so I am indignant over the fact that this - and other violence against women - continues. The brutality of the human race - be it in actions such as this - the Bosnian atrocities - or the brutalities we have in the US - still astounds me. Joanne http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/world/22INDI.html April 22, 2001 Abortion in India Is Tipping Scales Sharply Against Girls By CELIA W. DUGGER AFFARPUR, India — Here in the northern state of Punjab, couples who abort their female fetuses are known as "kudi-maar" — or "daughter-killers." The local health worker who lives in this village, a kindly woman named Jaswinder Kaur, recently led the way through a maze of narrow lanes to the home of one such family. Gurjit Kaur, 22, said she paid 500 rupees — about $11 — for an ultrasound test a year ago, then aborted her pregnancy after a doctor told her she was carrying a girl. Now her belly has swelled again, this time with the longed-for male child. Her plump face seemed radiant with well-being. "Our elders wanted a boy," she explained. "Boys are important because they have to look after all the property." Though India outlawed sex-determination tests in 1994, their use has become commonplace as ultrasound technology — which became available in cities during the 1980's — has spread to small towns served by itinerant doctors who carry the compact machines from clinic to clinic. Early figures from the 2001 census, conducted in February and March, have made it clear that female fetuses are being regularly aborted, continuing a trend that first became marked in the 1980's. The number of girls per 1,000 boys dropped to 927 this year from 945 in 1991 and 962 in 1981. The fall in the ratio of girls to boys over the past decade, when India's population grew by a staggering 181 million, has been most extreme in the richest states of the north and west, where more people can afford tests and abortions, demographers and economists say.
-- Joanne Bulley, MD, FACOG Keene, NH, USA
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