In today’s Calgary Herald, Susan Martinuk highlights a couple of recent womens’ healthcare-related stories that she says add up to a “tough week for pro-choicers”. One item caught my interest — the revelation that Canadian doctors have begun recommending and following guidelines that would limit “sex-selective” abortion:
Second, a current article in the Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada has issued a call for new guidelines regarding sex selective abortions. The preferential abortion of girls is a hush-hush practice that is officially condemned by Canada’s Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, yet still occurs among cultural groups (from countries such as China and India) that value boys more than girls.
The article suggests that physicians delay providing any information on an unborn child’s sex until after 20 weeks, when it is supposedly more difficult to attain an abortion. Apparently, doctors in British Columbia have practised this policy for the past few years.
Well I’ll be damned: doctors policing themselves — making their own recommendations for policy guidelines and putting them into practice without the “helpful” interference of government and regressive laws. Now where oh where have we heard that one before?
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/tny_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
unrepentant old hippie 
I don’t get how that is a dilemma for pro-choicers anyway? I’ve never met a pro-choice person that advocates this stuff or things like getting pregnant to just have an abortion or other things. I’ve met lots of anti-choice people that say they have met or heard of people that do, but never actually met these
unicornspeople myself.Bleatmop – It makes for good, if convoluted, spin. To Anti-choicers, the thought process goes something like this: pro-choice = feminist = can’t possibly be in favour of sex-selective abortions that target females, ERGO, that’s one for OUR SIDE!
In the real world it’s a lot simpler: whether it’s done for health reasons or convenience or even some reason as (IMO) odious as sex-selection, my personal opinion about it is relevant to one womb only, mine.
Not to mention that the reasons for the sex selective abortions are due to state intrusion into personal lives in China (1 child only policy) and due to a patriarchal system that values men a lot more than women in India (and China) that causes the sex selection abortions to take place. Both things that feminists fight against. Addressing the root of the issues would seem to fix any issues rather than using it as an excuse to regulate reproductive freedom.