BreakPoint This Week
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BP This Week: Gendercide By: Shane Morris|Published: January 18, 2013 12:00 AM John Stonestreet interviews Nicholas Kristof and Reggie Littlejohn, two of the most outspoken opponents of abortion's darkest face: gendercide. Listen Now | Download Many feminists ignore a double-edged sword in the battle over abortion. They're radically pro-abortion, even though females the world over are abortion's main target, especially in developing countries. During today's broadcast, John Stonestreet welcomes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, and human rights activist Reggie Littlejohn, to help us come to terms with the devastation which cultural darkness and technology are wreaking upon millions simply because of their sex. The rights of women have certainly blossomed over the last hundred years or so, but many may be surprised to discover that so-called "gendercide" against women is an all-to-present abomination in modern times, across the globe. "During the last election cycle," says John, "a lot was talked about the so-called 'war on women.' Well, there is a war being waged on women worldwide. It's just not the one being talked about... As the Economist magazine mentioned in 2010, 100 million girls are missing from around the word. Why? Because girls today are the targeted victims of violence and discrimination, often to death."
Nicholas Kristof
"This kind of discrimination begins with a fetus," explains Kristof. "In much of the world, there is a strong son-preference. Traditionally that manifests itself as a form of infanticide. That's a little harder for parents to do. But ultrasound has been spreading around the world, and as ultrasound machines spread, parents get the chance to find out the sex of the fetus toward the end of the first trimester. And increasingly, in places like China, India and many others, they turn to sex-selective abortion...So you start out with a sex ratio at birth that may be as much as 120 males to every 100 females. On top of that, if you have food you give it to your son, and not your daughter. When your son is sick, you take him to the doctor, but when your daughter is sick, you sort of feel her forehead and say, 'Well, let's see how you're doing tomorrow.' It's deeply imbedded in culture."
Reggie Littlejohn
According to Kristof, many countries suffer from high levels of sex-selective abortion. So what's unique about China? In Littlejohn's view, it all comes down to forced abortions and the so-called "one-child policy," which prohibits Chinese parents from bearing multiple children. Coupled with the strong cultural preference for boys, she says, this perfect storm of tyranny and discrimination has resulted in the deaths of countless girls, and a devastating population discrepancy. "What that's created," Littlejohn explains, "is a situation where there are now thirty-seven million more men than women in the country. And that gender imbalance in turn is driving human trafficking and slavery not only within China, and from the surrounding countries as well...All of these problems are connected. You've got the forced abortion policy, which leads to gendercide, which leads to sexual slavery. It's like the falling of all these dark dominoes that all start with the one-child policy." But in the course of Littlejohn's work, which has brought her to halls of power from the Obama White House to the European Parliament, she has discovered something important: everyone cares about this issue once they understand it. "It really shouldn't matter whether you're pro-choice or pro-life when it comes to the issue of forced abortion," she argues. "Forced abortion is not a choice." That's why Littlejohn reaches out to take the hand of anyone willing to combat the evil of gendercide. Her tireless efforts have led the National Pro-Life Religious Council to award her the Pro-Life Recognition award, which she will accept this month, on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But so much work remains to be done, and that's why Littlejohn urges us all to join her. In fact, she says, you can take specific action right now by visiting the Women's Rights Without Frontiers website and signing up to sponsor a Chinese family in need with a modest monthly stipend that could save a baby girl's life. We hope this edition of "BreakPoint This Week" has opened your mind and your heart to the plight of women and girls worldwide. And on this dark anniversary of the legalization of abortion in America, we also hope we've helped broaden your pro-life convictions with a determination that abortion—which feigns to honor women—is the worst enemy women worldwide have ever faced. Learn More...
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