There is a declining sex-ratio problem in India right now. Boys are valued more than girls, to the extent that girls are targeted by sex-selective abortions and infanticide. Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act of 1994, sex-selective abortion is illegal in India. However, abortion itself has been legal in India since 1971.
Ms. Bijayalaxmi Nanda is a professor at Miranda House, a Woman’s Institution of the University of Delhi. She is a fierce advocate against female feticide. However, she is also a fierce advocate for abortion rights. These two positions are absolutely contradictory and incompatible.
In an article she wrote for Radiance Weekly, Nanda describes female feticide as an “organised crime against women.” She emphasizes that it should not be thought of as discrimination against females, but of violence against females. She also iterates that sex-selective abortions are “illegal and inhuman.” I agree with her wholeheartedly. But Nanda’s line of thinking is flawed, and is an unfortunate reflection of our present culture. She does not realize that as long as she continues to advocate for a “woman’s right to choose,” sex-selective abortion will continue to ravage her country. Their effects are one in the same, both attacking the dignity of the human person.
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