Editing Sex-selective abortion (section)

== Societal effects ==

=== Missing women ===
{{Main|Missing women}}
The idea of "missing women" was first suggested by Amartya Sen, one of the first scholars to study high sex ratios and their causes globally, in 1990. In order to illustrate the gravity of the situation, he calculated the number of women that were not alive because of sex-selective abortion or discriminatory practices. He found that there were 11 percent fewer women than there "should" have been, if China had the natural sex ratio. This figure, when combined with statistics from around the world, led to a finding of over 100 million missing women. In other words, by the early 1990s, the number of missing women was "larger than the combined casualties of all famines in the twentieth century" (Sen 1990).<ref name= "Sen_1990" />

This has led to particular concern due to a critical shortage of wives. In some rural areas, there is already a shortage of women, which is tied to migration into urban areas (Park and Cho 1995).<ref name= ParkCho>{{cite journal | vauthors = Park CB, Cho NH | year = 1995 | title = Consequences of son preference in a low- fertility society:Imbalance of the sex ratio at birth in Korea | journal = Population and Development Review | volume = 21 | issue = 1| pages = 59–84 | doi=10.2307/2137413| jstor = 2137413 }}</ref> In [[South Korea]] and [[Taiwan]], high male sex ratios and declining birth rates over several decades have led to cross-cultural marriage between local men and foreign women from countries such as mainland China, Vietnam and the Philippines.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/world/asia/22brides.html?pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | vauthors = Onishi N | title=Korean Men Use Brokers to Find Brides in Vietnam | date=February 22, 2007 | access-date=February 23, 2017 | archive-date=November 4, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104102845/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/world/asia/22brides.html?pagewanted=all | url-status=live }}</ref> However, sex-selective abortion is not the only cause of this phenomenon; it is also related to migration and declining fertility.<ref name= ParkCho />

=== Trafficking, forced marriage and sex work ===
Some scholars argue that as the proportion of women to men decreases globally, there will be an increase in [[Human trafficking|trafficking]] and sex work (both forced and self-elected), as many men will be willing to do more to obtain a sexual partner (Junhong 2001).<ref name= "Junhong_2001" /> Already, there are reports of women from [[Vietnam]], [[Myanmar]], and [[North Korea]] systematically trafficked to mainland [[China]] and [[Taiwan]] and sold into [[forced marriage]]s.<ref name="Hvistendahl_WSJ">{{cite news |url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303657404576361691165631366 |title=The War Against Girls |work=The Wall Street Journal  | vauthors = Last JV |date=June 24, 2011 |access-date=August 7, 2017 |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928120406/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303657404576361691165631366 |url-status=live }}</ref> Moreover, Ullman and Fidell (1989) suggested that pornography and sex-related crimes of violence (i.e., rape and molestation) would also increase with an increasing sex ratio.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-1-4684-5631-8_15 |isbn=978-1-4684-5633-2 |chapter=Gender Selection and Society |title=Gender in Transition |year=1989 | vauthors = Ullman JB, Fidell LS |pages=179–187 }}</ref>

=== Widening of the gender social gap ===
As Park and Cho (1995) note, families in areas with high sex ratios that have mostly sons tend to be smaller than those with mostly daughters (because the families with mostly sons appear to have used sex-selective techniques to achieve their "ideal" composition).<ref name= ParkCho /> Particularly in poor areas, large families tend to have more problems with resource allocation, with daughters often receiving fewer resources than sons.<ref name=ParkCho /> Blake (1989) is credited for noting the relationship between family size and childhood "quality." Therefore, if families with daughters continue to be predominantly large, it is likely that the social gap between genders will widen due to traditional cultural discrimination and lack of resource availability.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Blake J |title=Family Size and Achievement |date=1989 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06296-2 }}{{page needed|date=March 2020}}</ref>

Guttentag and Secord (1983) hypothesized that when the proportion of males throughout the world is greater, there is likely to be more violence and war.<ref name= Guttentag>{{cite book | vauthors = Guttentag M, Secord PF |title=Too many women?: the sex ratio question |date=1983 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=978-0-8039-1918-1 }}{{page needed|date=March 2020}}</ref>

=== Potential positive effects ===
Some scholars believe that when sex ratios are high, women actually become valued more because of their relative shortage.<ref name= ParkCho /> Park and Cho (1995) suggest that as women become more scarce, they may have "increased value for conjugal and reproductive functions" (75). Eventually, this could lead to better social conditions, followed by the birth of more women and sex ratios moving back to natural levels.<ref name= ParkCho /> This claim is supported by the work of demographer Nathan Keifitz. Keifitz (1983) wrote that as women become fewer, their relative position in society will increase. However, to date, no data has supported this claim.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Keifitz N | chapter = Foreword | veditors = Bennett NG | title = Sex selection of children. | location = New York | publisher = Academic Press | date = 1983 | pages = xi–xiii }}</ref>

It has been suggested by Belanger (2002) that sex-selective abortion may have positive effects on the mother choosing to abort the female fetus. This is related to the historical duty of mothers to produce a son in order to carry on the family name. As previously mentioned, women gain status in society when they have a male child, but not when they have a female child. Oftentimes, bearing of a son leads to greater legitimacy and agency for the mother. In some regions of the world where son preference is especially strong, sonless women are treated as outcasts. In this way, sex-selective abortion is a way for women to select for male fetuses, helping secure greater family status.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bélanger D | title = Sex selective abortions: short-term and long-term perspectives | journal = Reproductive Health Matters | volume = 10 | issue = 19 | pages = 194–196 | date = May 2002 | pmid = 12369329 | doi = 10.1016/S0968-8080(02)00033-2 | s2cid = 12574519 | doi-access = free | jstor = 3775793 }}</ref>

Goodkind (1999)<ref name="Goodkind_1999"/> argues that sex-selective abortion should not be banned purely because of its discriminatory nature. Instead, he argues, we must consider the overall lifetime possibilities of discrimination. In fact, it is possible that sex-selective abortion takes away much of the discrimination women would face later in life. Since families have the option of selecting for the fetal sex they desire, if they choose not to abort a female fetus, she is more likely to be valued later in life. In this way, sex-selective abortion may be a more humane alternative to infanticide, abandonment, or neglect. Goodkind (1999) poses an essential philosophical question, "if a ban were enacted against prenatal sex testing (or the use of abortion for sex-selective purposes), how many excess postnatal deaths would a society be willing to tolerate in lieu of whatever sex-selective abortions were avoided?"

===Controversies===
There are many controversies surrounding sex-selective abortion. Just like the practice of sex-selective abortion has been criticized, the solutions proposed or enacted by governments have also been criticized.<ref name="nwlc.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/prendafactsheet.pdf|title=Race and Sex Selection Abortion Bans Are Harmful to Women | work = National Women's Law Center|access-date=June 10, 2017|archive-date=October 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003225021/https://www.nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/prendafactsheet.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Eklund & Purewal 2017">{{cite journal | vauthors = Eklund L, Purewal N |title=The bio-politics of population control and sex-selective abortion in China and India |journal=Feminism & Psychology |date=February 2017 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=34–55 |doi=10.1177/0959353516682262 |s2cid=152171783 |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/23079/1/Bio-Politics-Population-Control-Sex-Selective-Abortion-China-India.pdf |access-date=March 10, 2020 |archive-date=July 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731065129/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/23079/1/Bio-Politics-Population-Control-Sex-Selective-Abortion-China-India.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Eklund & Purewal argued that the response to a patriarchal practice (sex selection) should not be another patriarchal practice (restricting women's reproductive rights), as such a situation creates a cycle: women's social status is lowered, which in turn leads to more sex-selective abortions.<ref name="Eklund & Purewal 2017"/> The association of public discourse on sex-selective abortion with the [[anti-abortion movement]] also complicates the situation.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Mohapatra S | title = False Framings: The Co-opting of Sex-Selection by the Anti-Abortion Movement | journal = The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics | volume = 43 | issue = 2 | pages = 270–274 | date = August 2015 | pmid = 26242948 | doi = 10.1111/jlme.12242 | hdl-access = free | s2cid = 33140798 | hdl = 1805/25403 }}</ref> Furthermore, access to safe abortion is seen by some as important from a [[public health]] perspective; in India, although the abortion law is relatively liberal, most efforts are put into preventing sex-selective abortion, rather than adequate access to safe abortion,<ref name="Eklund & Purewal 2017"/> as a result nearly 78% of all abortions in India take place outside of health facilities, with such [[unsafe abortions]] representing the third largest cause of maternal death in India.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.indiaspend.com/reduce-stigma-to-make-women-comfortable-accessing-safe-abortions-88950/| title=Reduce Stigma to Make Women Comfortable Accessing Safe Abortions| date=August 7, 2018| access-date=December 25, 2018| archive-date=April 9, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409060749/https://www.indiaspend.com/reduce-stigma-to-make-women-comfortable-accessing-safe-abortions-88950/| url-status=live}}</ref> Another controversy in that of [[population planning]] campaigns such as the [[one child policy]] in China, and efforts from the governments of several Asian countries, including India and South Korea, from the 1970s onward to limit the number of children a family could have, which have intensified the desire to quickly have a son. An article by [[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] titled "''How Western family planners helped curb the birth of girls in developing countries, the effects of which are felt today''" claimed that it was such population policies (which included [[forced sterilization]]), which were fully supported, even pushed by the West, that contributed to unbalanced sex ratios.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2018/11/politics-population-control-181127071333333.html | title=The Politics of Population Control &#124; India | work = al Jazeera | access-date=December 25, 2018 | archive-date=December 24, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224212605/https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2018/11/politics-population-control-181127071333333.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Hvistendahl M |title=Where Have All the Girls Gone? |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/27/where-have-all-the-girls-gone/ |website=Foreign Policy |date=June 27, 2011 |access-date=May 22, 2020 |archive-date=February 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225220814/https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/27/where-have-all-the-girls-gone/ |url-status=live }}</ref>