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Thingish Things

The Progressive Order

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jun• 25•11

I’ve been reading horrific stories of late about gender selection abortions across the globe.  So many pregnancies where the unborn child is female are being terminated that it is significantly altering the natural ratio of girls to boys worldwide. The practice is particularly prevalent in Asia, where the norm of 105 boys to every 100 girls is becoming skewed in some regions to as high as 120 males to every 100 females.

Ph.D.-bearing population control types might cheer this as progressive, but it leaves me feeling angry and sickened. Not just as the lucky father of three girls, but as a member of the human race. The practice seems Mengele-like to me.  If there is any wrathfullness in God, this would demand its demonstration.

Pro-choice and pro-life Americans mostly agree, according to polling, that gender-selection abortions are creepy — and not the purpose of the country’s reproduction laws. Which leaves me wondering, especially in the wake of Friday’s new gay marriage law in New York, how abortion would be perceived today had it always been legal.

If abortion, since the days of
Ancient Greece, had been commonplace — routine — would the civil rights issue of the day be protecting the unborn? Would that be considered progressive, a call to our better angels?  I think it might be. And I think the cry for protections would come from the American Left.

As it is, though, allowing abortion is considered the civil right, a woman’s right. But is that because of the way history played out?

Gender selection abortions are not going away. If the current trend holds, they will only increase in number, just as the number of abortions in the African-American community is steadily increasing (60% of all black pregnancies in New York City are terminated). But I feel certain they will reframe over time how the average person perceives the practice of abortion.

Pro-choice activists might want to get ahead of this curve and speak out on unconscionable practices rather than be stuck defending the indefensible.

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