Not your report TCF - that was fine. It's the Times and the reporter harping on condemning sex-selective abortion. India is not far along in their social issues to tackle that. The problem with cultures such as India and China are strikingly different to Western culture so different approaches apply because this is the developing world. Careful thought must be examined to their unique issues from their standpoint in an attempt to ease destructive cultural habits. Condemning the sex-selective abortion in this case is a viable point for Indian feminists because it's essentially an act of misogyny - a feminist challenge. If sex-selective abortion were abusive to males in some way, then this issue would pertain! What's next with the snobbery? PETA showing up to rural parts of Asia and condmening their slaughter of animals that provide them sustenance? Also, at the risk of getting Christian and Muslim Indians harping down my throat (and I am Indian) I'd also like others to consider that Hinduism is not only the historical religion of Indians but also the most predominant religion in that country. "Killing Eve" is a ridiculous title for the reporting piece - it isolates the largest religious group of that region who no doubt have members who are practicing sex-selective abortion. When I think of Eve I think of all those paintings of a white, naked female holding an apple - not an Indian woman. Instead of Eve the title should have been "Killing *insert Hindu goddess here*".

There may be some kind of story in the vicinity, but I don't care. Why? Read what a former insider says about the Washington Times' incoming Editor in Chief's motivations for running this piece:

"In the discussion with colleagues on The Washington Times foreign desk, editor Jones said: "The reason we are running this story is that [editor Fran] Coombs thinks all the aborted girls means that Indian men will be immigrating to the United States to marry our girls." That is an exact quote, what Jones told his colleagues on the foreign desk.

Coombs has told me and others repeatedly that he favors abortion because he sees it as a way to eliminate black and other minority babies."

http://georgearchibald.typepad.com/george_archibald/2007/02/unhinged.html

That's all that really needs to be said. I'll wait for a more credible source to come along, thanks.

News stories should not call sex-selective abortion murder. It's sex-selective abortion which is different than killing girl babies after it's born.

"There definitely are hypocritical feminist arguments about sex-selective abortions. But they don't necessarily have to be so. Individual decisions to end a pregnancy are completely different from the systematic eradication of one gender of fetus. Not to mention, as our readers have argued before, it's possible to fully support a woman's choice to have a sex-selective abortion while condemning the social and economic conditions that make that an appealing choice or -- for poor Indian families unable to commit to a dowry -- no real choice at all."

My thoughts exactly.

You end up with millions and millions of Indian men who can never hope to have a wife. Historically this leads to widespread violence.

Factor in the millions and millions of refugees fleeing the rising seas, and India becomes a very scary place.

Good thing they don't have any nuclear weapons or anything.

The W. Times, stinks.

As for that ridiculous quote from that new editor, does he not realize that most abortions are performed on white women? At least, last time in my Womens' studies class those were the stats, about 4 yrs ago. I was told that minorities are less likely to have an abortion because of religions and cultural beliefs and also because many immigrants don't mind being poor in america, because poor here is a lot better than poor in their native country.

It's also funny because growing up inside the community of anti-choicers, their rhetoric is that they are sick of white people aborting their babies because they are terrified the minorities will take over, the rich white people who adopt don't want to adopt minority babies (because they dont' want anyone to know that they couldnt' have a natural child) and plus it's a teaching to be fruitful and multiply so that you'll have a Christian army.

As for feminists being hypocrits on this issue, I of course don't agree at all. It is one thing to abort because you can't or won't carry a child to term, it is quite another when you want a child, but keep doing it until you get one with the right set of genitals.

Wasn't this very issue on Broadsheet not more than a month or two back?

I agree with the previous poster, this is Western snobbery. I'm not Indian, I've never lived in India, but I do know enough about a few other cultures to know that there is always, always more than meets the eye with someone else's culture.

What if, suddenly, in the USA, one's entire retirement were funded not through a 401K or pension plan or social security, but through having a son? One's ability to live, eat, and die in comfort depended entirely on having a son (not a daughter)? You'd see the same rash of sex-selective abortions here in about three weeks flat.

Yes, killing a female full-term child (or any child) is reprehensible. But if I were poor, living in India, and looking at a grim future of starvation in my old age vs. being able to nurture a male child to adulthood through any means possible, I might be standing in line for that sex-selective abortion too.

These kinds of articles are all about shock value, and not about any attempt to see the world through another's eyes.

What I found intesting (after reading the first article in the series) is that sex-selective abortion is framed as the woman trying to protect her daughter from cruelty and injustice.

It isn't framed as the woman trying to save money: "better 500 rupees now [for an abortion] rather than 50,000 rupees later" [for a dowry]."

Why aren't American women also afforded this "presumption of innocence" in abortion? Is it cultural snobbery? That American women should be above such tribal customs?

Just some stuff to ponder.