On Wednesday, May 30, the United States House of Representatives will consider the "Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act." Known as "PRENDA," the latest version of the bill (there have been at least three) would ban abortions performed on the basis of sex. If this bill becomes law, a doctor or nurse who suspects that a patient is seeking a sex-selective abortion would be required to report her to authorities. Doctors who perform such a procedure could face jail time, fines, or lawsuits from a patient or her family.
This bill means that all women -- and to be clear, particularly Asian American women -- who seek an abortion could face new, intense scrutiny. In particular, given the issue of sex selection in Asian countries, any woman who appears to be Asian American risks intense questioning about the decision she has made to seek an abortion. The bill also targets providers and makes it more difficult to provide reproductive health care including abortion.
As organizations representing thousands of women of color, and as women of color ourselves, we work every day to fight sex discrimination and racial stereotyping in all its forms. We fight for policies shown to be effective in improving the lives of women and girls, like improving education, better health care, equal employment opportunities and pay equity.
The supporters of this bill are not our friends on these issues. They are hypocrites: opponents of reproductive decision-making who don't care about sex discrimination. Their agenda is banning all abortions and punishing those who provide them.
We condemn the gender bias that can lead to pressure to have a child of a particular sex. We are working against the root causes of abortion for sex selection including son preference and gender stereotypes. But there are better ways to combat gender bias than taking away a woman's ability to make personal, private medical decisions. Instead we should be working together -- as we are in our own communities -- to decrease gender stereotyping that can lead to strong boy or girl preference.
No woman should ever be scrutinized or interrogated by her doctor, but this is exactly what would happen if this bill becomes law. Given the risks to providers, even the decision to find out the sex of a child during a wanted pregnancy may become suspect.
Women of color have historically suffered from substandard health care, family planning, and education -- all of which contribute to unintended pregnancies, infant and maternal deaths, and other serious health issues. We need to end the historical and ongoing disparities in reproductive health care that harm us all.
Every week anti-choice members of Congress seem to find a new way to demonize and target women. This week's is particularly cynical. At a time when so many people are struggling, PRENDA is an insidious attempt to distract from the real issues at hand. We need solutions that improve health and improve a woman's ability to make the best reproductive health decisions for her circumstances. Further, we need policies that make it easier for a woman of color to raise her family in a safe and healthy environment, so she can continue a pregnancy if she wants to. That is the work that we will continue -- this week and beyond.
Miriam Yeung is executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. Jessica González-Rojas is the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Eleanor Hinton Hoytt is president and CEO of the Black Women's Health Imperative.
Rep. Judy Chu: PRENDA: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
American women prefer sons : daughters by 33%:31%
American men prefer sons : daughters by 49%:22%
49% of Republicans prefer a son, 39% of Democrats prefer a son.
Son preference is a MALE phenomena in America and primarily a REPUBLICAN ONE.
In recent years, there has been a huge outcry regarding the unassailable deficit problems with Social Security. There simply isn't enough money. If wondering why this is happening, you only need to remember that Social Security was designed to work by having this generation pay for the previous generation's retirement. Well folks, we have killed over 50 million taxpayers through abortion. Now there is a fact to chew on!
It is regrettable that I need to remind you that your immense selfishness regarding these tiny helpless humans has not only caused this crises, but also inflicted horrific pain on the children. We have empirical evidence that children feel pain while still in the womb.
If you are 39 or younger, be grateful that you are here to read (and possibly get angry over) my words. Because, since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, you and every other human in America has been in a real dangerous position: your mother had the "right" to kill you. If that is moral, kindly tell me why she would be in prison if she had done this one day after your birth?
Will you be pushing for a bill FORCING ALL MEN to donate a kidney, bone marrow and blood as required to save the many helpless human LIVES who need them?
Or do you feel only WOMEN'S bodies should be taken over and used by the government?
What about YOUR immense selfishness in not giving part of YOUR body to protect life?
I am a doctor, and there is NO EVIDENCE of fetal pain WHATSOEVER. A fetus is so called because it is BIOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT from a baby, anatomically and physiologically.
Women have been recorded to have been performing abortions since ANCIENT GREECE.
My mother had me because she WANTED to, if she didn't, I would have preferred for her to abort me and live than abort me, become infected and DIE.
Unlike you, I LOVE and TRUST my Mom, and I believe it was her choice, I am therefore GRATEFUL for the CHOICE she made.
A woman DIES EVERY NINETY SECONDS in childbirth.
It HAS to be a choice, and antichoicers are MURDERERS.
You are intentionally ignorant of the evidence regarding children being able to feel pain while in the womb. I am sad that you are such a callused and uncaring individual regarding the most vulnerable members of society. The USSR would have welcomed your mindset. There is an accounting yet to come. We'll see how you fare .
If we were speaking Latin that would be relevant, but we're not so it isn't. The usage is different in English.
"...the deficit problems with Social Security...we have killed over 50 million taxpayers..."
Well, unemployment is huge; there would be 50 million more unemployed people who would not be *paying* taxes, they'd be taking from our overloaded unemployment/welfare system. So your argument is turned on its head: we are economically better off because of abortion.
"We have empirical evidence that children feel pain while still in the womb."
Developmentally, the necessary structures to transmit pain do not develop before about week 25, which is in the third trimester; very few abortions are performed after that. And there is no consensus if the fetus is even then experiencing pain as we do. We don't even know if or at what point a fetus experiences consciousness as we do.
"If that is moral, kindly tell me why she would be in prison if she had done this one day after your birth?"
If buying whiskey on Saturday is moral, why is it illegal to buy it on Sunday? And if immoral on Saturday, why is it permitted? If 65 miles an hour is moral, why isn't 66? Or 67?
The law does not determine what is moral; many laws have nothing to do with morality, but are purely pragmatic.
1. It's a huge problem in India as well as in China.
2. Re: "it 's not mine or any politicians business what a woman does anyway in my opinion."
That's not the thinking in much of the world. The idea that women's reproductive rights are so extensive that she has a right to abort a baby whose sex she doesn't want is actually not a view with much support outside of the American pro-choice movement. Avowed feminists like Hillary Clinton support laws banning the practice in India. As far as other western countries go...
"Many nations with staunchly pro-choice/pro-abortion rights laws and protections nevertheless ban sex-selection abortions. Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands all have laws banning sex-selection abortions." -John Parkinson, ABC News, May 30, 2012, Sex-Selection Abortions Bill Pits Democrats Against Republicans in House
The fact is, its not illegal to abort because of sex. Planned Parenthood didn't make a thing about it when the plant asked about it, because personal feelings aside about what they may think of it, the fake mother asking didn't break any law.
The fact is, sex selective abortion in the USA is so low, that the only way to make this a fake issue is by using a fake person presenting themselves under fake pretenses. Basically, we're reacting to a stage play.
I am not as you described those who support this bill - I have worked my whole life, and have played sports my whole life, and am married with two children, so I know what having life inside me feels like...
the idea of aborting a baby JUST because it isn't the sex you were hoping for is SO far out there in the strata where people who believe in something get lost when they stand so strongly that they defy common sense that I am shocked that you are unable to see the difference between maintaining a woman's right to choose whether to get pregnant and her 'right' to get rid of a baby because she wanted the other sex. Sheesh!
Women prefer sons:daughters by a factor of 33% : 31%, and 39% of democrats prefer a son.
Men prefer sons:daughters by a factor of 49% : 22% and 49% of Republicans prefer a son.
Gender selection is due to the preference of Republican and conservative MEN all over the world.
Why don't you go lecture them about their hatred of girlchildren?
Men have no right to interfere.
FEMALE POWER!
We must defend our right to kill little girls!
American women polled last year by Gallup preferred sons to daughters 33% to 31%, American MEN preferred sons to daughters 49% to 22%.
So you see, it's YOU guys that are resulting in the deaths of little girls worldwide by making women who are risking their lives in pregnancy feel inadequate for producing THEIR OWN GENDER.
I thought women were adults who made their own decisions.
Now you're telling me that they are essentially children.
That's what I love about feminists: their consistency.
Women are powerful, which is why they bow to male pressure.
We must protect women by killing little girls.
You have a right to do whatever you want, except disagree with us.
There's always an excuse, isn't there?
Kara, why didn't you just use your president's excuse and say sex selection abortion is all George Bush's fault?
Makes about as much sense.
Face it here is your true war on women. 160 million missing women and girls? Think about it
If I am not entitled to make my own health care decisions....then how can I be held liable for decisions that are made? Arrest my employer/priest/Catholic Bishop/Congressman/Governor- they have been made the 'deciders'
If Doctors are to be held responsible for the 'motives' of their patients....will men's minds be 'probed' as to how/why they intend to use viagra? Will there be a test to determine if it's really for 'sex with his wife', must a doctor report him if he suspects infidelity/illicit affairs?
Wonder how many of the hypocrites in Congress would sign up to co-sponsor that?