India: An abortion doctor condemned
On March 8 last, the international Day of the Woman, the federal government of India launched the campaign, “Decade for the survival of children of the female sex”, to eliminate female abortion.
Since then, authorities have established, through study of the medical records, the responsibility of Dr. Anil Sabsani for the practice of aborting female fetuses after an ultrasound. The doctor and his assistant have been sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Indian rupees (over 100 U.S. dollars), in the state of Haryana.
“Each year, it’s a tragedy. One half million girls are killed and will not see the light of day”, declared Renuka Chowdhury, Minister for the Condition of Women and Children, at the launching of the Decade. “We must put a stop to it”. The national census of 2001 counted less than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys below the age of six in several regions of India and 929 adult women for every 1,000 men. “What’s more shocking” asserted the minister is that this demographic drop in fact affects the developed regions with prosperous economies, with significant levels of literacy and the highest incomes.
In 2005, the Christian Medical Association of India made a study on births in the Delhi hospitals revealing that the third child born after two girls was on the order of 219 girls for every 1,000 boys.
“We are happy the government recognizes the gravity of the problem”, but the struggle against abortion of females also requires a struggle against prejudice toward girls, declared Jessy George, Secretary of the Christian Women’s Union in Delhi, to the ENI press agency, for in the Indian tradition not only is there a preference for sons but it is also impossible for many families to afford to give their daughters dowries.
