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A culture conundrum rises in abortion debate
Everyone agrees that sex-based abortion is a repugnant practice that needs to be condemned.
But not everyone agrees how it can be stopped.
Now the suggestion by a South Asian doctor in a major Canadian medical journal urging his fellow physicians to conceal the gender of a fetus from all pregnant women until 30 weeks to prevent sex-selective abortion has triggered a new frontier in an age-old debate.
Dr. Rajendra Kale, interim editor-in-chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal wants to see doctors withhold information about the sex of a child in the womb until 30 weeks' gestation to prevent "an unquestioned abortion" because parents prefer a boy.
Kale said research in Canada has found the strongest evidence of fetal sex selection among some Canadians of Asian descent, including people from India, China, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines.
"What this means is that many couples who have two daughters and no son selectively get rid of female fetuses until they can ensure that their third-born child is a boy," he writes, while stressing that not all Asian-Canadians condone nor engage in the practice.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal also warns that Canada has become “a haven for parents who would terminate female fetuses in favor of having sons” due to advanced prenatal testing and easy access to abortion.
The so-called `gendercide` in Asia has resulted in millions of girls not being born, either via selective abortion, in some cases by infanticide, and in others through statistical elimination by families electing to have a second or third child based on the sex of the previous child – some parents will elect not to have another child if they already have a boy, and some who have a girl first choose to try again.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, advises its members that it is "contrary to good medical practice to use ultrasound only to view the fetus to obtain a picture or video of the fetus or to determine the gender of the fetus."
The B.C. regulatory body states that testing to identify fetal sex should not be used to accommodate societal preferences that terminating a pregnancy for an undesired sex is repugnant and it is unethical for a doctor to facilitate such a course of action.
However it does happen, said Pardeep Sahota of the Progressive Intercultural Community Services in Vancouver.
She told a newspaper that one or two of every 50 clients treated at the women’s health clinic run by Progressive Intercultural Community Services in Vancouver has aborted a female fetus for gender reasons,
Sahota said many women face tremendous pressure to have sons and don’t understand their rights here.
“We’ve had clients that have had repeat abortions based on sex selection,” Sahota said. “We’ve had women tell us they’ve sometimes had a doctor encourage them to abort.”
Balpreet Singh of the World Sikh Organization said he knows sex selection is an issue in Asia and suspects it exists in Canada as well.
“Sex selection of fetuses is reprehensible. The Sikh faith actually forbids the practice,” Singh said. “Any steps to end the practice are good ones.”
But others working in immigrant communities said they have not come across sex-based abortions at all or any great degree.
The South Asian Women’s Centre and the Immigrant Women’s Health Centre in Toronto, said they didn’t know of a single case of a woman seeking a sex-selective abortion.
“We’re a little concerned about there being racial stereotypes around this, and whether or not it’s actually happening in Canada is hard to say,” said Ayesha Adhami, administrative co-ordinator at the centre.
Bob Bak, an advocate for the Korean Community, said sex selection is a very sensitive issue in the community; he was, however, not aware of the practice among Canadian Koreans.
Erlinda Insigne, president of the Filipino-Canadian Association had similar observations of her ethnic group.
“The Philippines does not abort pregnancies because it is a Catholic country. In fact, we don’t practice family planning which is why you see families with an average of six children.”
Canada in 2004 outlawed fertility practices that would increase the likelihood that an embryo will be a certain sex, or that would identify an in-vitro embryo by sex for any reason other than to diagnose a sex-linked disorder or disease.
However, Kale, a Mumbai-born neurologist, believes that several hundred sex-selective abortions take place in Canada each year.
He cites US census data from 2000 that shows male-biased sex ratios among US-born children of Asian parents, and a study of 65 Indian women in the US from 2004-2009 that showed 89 percent of them terminated pregnancies with female fetuses.
Kale said the Canadian medical establishment needs to go further, and make express rulings that would ban fetal sex disclosure before seven months, when it is too late for an abortion.
He added that doctors should nevertheless “avoid painting all Asians with the same broad brush and doing injustice to those who are against sex selection,” but called for collective cooperation by women of all races.
“The execution of a ‘disclose sex only after 30 weeks’ policy would require the understanding and willingness of women of all ethnicities to make a temporary compromise,” he wrote.
“Postponing the transmission of such information is a small price to pay to save thousands of girls in Canada.”
But this does not sit well with some.
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) said Kale's proposal runs counter to the medical group's policy that a patient's request for disclosure should be respected.
"Providing patients with results of diagnostic imaging procedures is part of the Canadian standard of care, and fetal sex determination and disclosure should not be exempt. The SOGC believes it is the right of the patient to be informed of the gender of their fetus, and that this information should not be withheld."
Alexia Conradi, head of the pro-choice Women’s Federation of Quebec, agreed that abortive sex-selection is “unacceptable,” but questioned the motivation of those who support formal measures to prevent it.
“You have to wonder if the act of withholding information is a good thing when the matter is being raised by conservatives in the US and Canada whose goal is to quietly roll back abortion rights.”
The Ottawa Citizen in an editorial derided Dr Kale’s suggestion as a poor solution.
If there is a problem in some Canadian ethnic communities, it said, the better approach is for doctors to counsel parents against aborting a fetus based on gender. In Canada, women have a right to choose abortion. In some cases, the reason for doing so might be regarded as deplorable, but that is still a woman's choice, the paper said.
For Dr Kale the problem of female feticide in Canada maybe small, circumscribed and manageable compared to India or China.
But he adds: “If Canada cannot control this repugnant practice, what hope do India and China have of saving millions of women?" – Compiled by Mata Press service from news agencies.
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