Stop ignoring historical western advocacy of sex selection

Mara Hvistendahl, a correspondent with Science magazine and author of the recently published "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men," writes in a Foreign Policy feature that "as American politicians argue over whether to cut Planned Parenthood's U.S. funding and the Christian right drives through bans on sex-selective abortion at the state level, the effects of three decades of sex selection elsewhere in the world are becoming alarmingly apparent. In China, India, Korea, and Taiwan, the first generation shaped by sex selection has grown up, and men are scrambling to find women, yielding the ugly sideblows of increased sex trafficking and bride buying."

She concludes, "Four decades ago, Western advocacy of sex selection yielded tragic results. But if we continue to ignore that legacy and remain paralyzed by heated U.S. abortion politics, we're compounding that mistake. Indian public health activist [Sabu] George, indeed, says waiting to act is no longer an option: If the world does 'not see ten years ahead to where we're headed, we're lost'" (6/27).