I give you Jonathan Last, making the claim that abortion is a war on women.
In the guise of a book review (Mara Hvistendahl's Unnatural Selection), Last recites the ludicrous proposal that somehow, women's choice is creating a war on girl babies.
His evidence is rather compelling. As an example, for every 100 Chinese women born, 121 men are born. In India, the ratio is 112:100.
Except...Last (and to a slighter extent, Hvistendahl) lay the blame at the feet of the parents, when in point of fact, the blame should correctly be placed on the patriarchal societies that devalue women in the first place.
This devaluation creates a resonating frequency, an echo chamber. If (as in China) it's not a government mandate, then (as in India) it's a societal mandate: women simply aren't as valuable as men.
Ironically, in India, women have held offices at all political levels, which makes for an interesting phenomenon. There's a dichotomy between the family unit, in which women are second-class citizens, routinely belittled and physically and emotionally abused, and the plebian concerns of a nation, which view women as equals somehow.
In other words, it's not the family that is "aborting" these babies. This is like blaming a woman for getting in front of a punch from her husband. Shame on you, Jonathan Last. For shame.
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