Pro-life advocates have welcomed a move to ban sex-selective abortion in New South Wales, following new research indicating the practice is used to preference boys. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick, who supported a failed amendment to ban the practice during the state’s recent abortion reform debate, plans to introduce a bill, likely in October, aimed specifically at banning sex-selective abortion.
Mr Ruddick said he was bolstered by an Edith Cowan University study revealing a disproportionate number of male over female births among certain migrant populations in New South Wales and Western Australia during the period 1994-2015.
The study, published in Global Public Health journal in May, was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
While the typical sex ratio at birth (SRB) in most parts of the world is approximately 105 boys per 100 girls the researchers, led by perinatal epidemiologist Amanuel Gebremedhin, found children born to Indian, Chinese and Vietnamese migrants had a ratio skewed towards boys that exceeded the expected ratio.
The researchers said it was indirect evidence of sex-selective abortion practices.
“This study provides the most compelling observational evidence to date of male-biased SRB among overseas-born mothers, which appears to be attributed to prenatal sex determination followed by selective abortion of females.”
While the findings should be interpreted with “caution”, “the overall trend of male-biased SRB “remains consistent and aligns with existing literature on sex ratio imbalances among immigrant groups, particularly from countries with a strong son preference.”
“The Greens said our amendment was not necessary because it’s not happening, then we saw that Edith Cowan research,” Mr Ruddick said.
“The evidence is absolutely bullet-proof that this is happening.
“So I am hopeful we can actually get this bill through and it will be the beginning of reversing the tide against radical abortion laws we currently have in New South Wales.”
Monica Doumit, Sydney Archdiocese’s director of public affairs and engagement, hopes the bill receives broad support.
“It would be absolutely shocking if any politician was in favour of killing a child in the womb simply because it was a baby girl,” she said.
“Surely our MPs can’t be so committed to the ideology of abortion on demand that they would block an attempt to prevent sex-selective abortion.”
FULL STORY
Pro-life advocates welcome move to ban sex-selective abortions in NSW (By Marilyn Rodrigues, The Catholic Weekly)
