Just when we thought that things couldn't get much tougher for today's pro-choice activists whose cause is under attack, the Baby Gender Mentor test comes along to profoundly shake the foundations of our beliefs. The BGM can supposedly determine the gender of a fetus as early as five weeks into pregnancy - about as early as other tests can determine whether or not a woman is even pregnant!
If do it yourself gender tests become available in drugstores alongside the fertility and pregnancy tests, what will be the outcome? Will women resist or submit to family and social pressures to give birth to a boy? Sure we all know about the son-preference of certain cultures, but will not the West's own brand of male chauvinism and privilege come out to shine? "You have to worry so much more about a daughter!" "Boys and men just have it so much easier in this man's world." What is to be made of the fact that the test can detect gender so early as to facilitate first trimester abortion? Terms like "family balancing" only mask or worse, sugarcoat the gravity of femicide.
Don't worry, I'm not about to proclaim leadership of UofT Students for Life. This hasn't made an anti out of me. But I predict that if testing the gender of your baby becomes as accessible as a bottle of Aspirin, the pro- and anti-choice are in for an historic showdown.
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4 comments:
That's a pretty scary development. But I think you are right to draw out the rather strange implications this would have for pro/anti abortion people.
Here is the dilemma.
Personally, I support a woman's right to choose.
But does this also mean that I am entitled to support a woman's right to test the sex of their baby?
From my own gut feeling, I'd say no. Though there is an obvious (potential) contradiction in such a position, I think that a sex-testing device itself is a product of male gender power.
I feel this isn't contradicting my pro-choice stance because choosing to abort based on the sex of the baby, whether it is the woman's prerogative or not, is something that is completely antithetical to feminist aims.
You must also keep in mind the role of capital here. New devices or products are created to fulfill certain market needs.
What sort of needs does a sex-testing device aim to fulfill?
I rest my case.
I really don't think that gender testing will be a problem in Canada. Many women even prefer to have female children anyways. I think I would prefer to have a girl... I mean, think about it - girls are awesome and cute and we can do their hair and teach them all about their womanly powers.
I don't think this is so much an issue of abortion as it is of status. If the status of women were the same as men, you wouldn't be worried about femicide. So the answer is obviously to raise the status of women (not to prevent abortions).
But anyways, I think women have enough power and status in Canada that there should be no widespread preference for male children here, as in China. I think knowing the gender of the fetus would have the same effect as knowing its eye colour or personality type or anything else that people would have arbitrary preferences for.
I don't see how this is a problem at all - unless the unborn is human.
If the unborn isn't human, than how can there be anything wrong with abortion? Are you suggesting that a woman has a right to choose an abortion, unless she chooses it for a reason that you don't agree with? That doesn't make any sense to me.
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