An Oklahoma Senate panel advanced House Bill 1595 on Thursday, March 26th, where it is expected to pass. This bill would ban abortions based on the gender of the fetus and require women to provide person information and their reasons for having abortions. AUL’s Oklahoma State Director Maressa Treat has been working with local groups, including Oklahomans for Life, to help pass this important bill.

For more, see Tulsa World, “Senate panel OKs abortion bill.”

In a vote of 419 to 1 yesterday, the House of Representatives approved House Resolution 1370, which calls for an end to Chinese human rights abuses, such as China’s coerced abortion and involuntary sterilization policies. The measure seeks to ensure that the Olympic Games take place “in an atmosphere that honors the Olympic traditions of freedom and openness.”

As originally drafted, the resolution failed to address the abusive Chinese coercive population control policy. Chris Smith introduced an amendment to the resolution in the Foreign Affairs Committee that called on “the Government of the People’s Republic of China to abandon its coercive population control policy which includes forced abortion and involuntary sterilization.”

As chairman of House human rights committees, Rep. Smith has held over 25 hearings on human rights abuses by the Chinese government. He has been a long-time champion for Chinese human rights throughout the years.

Smith stated that China’s one-child policy “is the largest violation of women’s rights in the history of human kind.” He continued, asserting that “With its heavy reliance on forced abortion, involuntary sterilization and ruinous fines for illegal children, the policy, in effect since 1979, constitutes one of the greatest continuous crimes against humanity in human history.”

Smith highlighted the atrocious harm that has been done to Chinese women, exclaiming that “China’s coercive population control program has imposed unspeakable violence, pain and humiliation on hundreds of millions of Chinese women, many of whom suffer lifelong depression as a consequence.”

Not only has the coercive one-child policy harmed living women, it has created a huge gender disparity in China through sex-selective abortions. Smith stated: “As a direct result of the government’s one-child policy, tens of millions of girls are missing today…The lost girls of China is a gendercide.”

The Olympic Games has lead to heightened human rights abuses, as the Chinese government increasingly seeks to silence Chinese human rights activists from bringing attention to the government’s barbaric policies during the Olympic games. Rep. Smith asserted that “Tragically, but predictably, the Olympics have been an occasion of a massive crackdown designed to silence and put beyond reach all those Chinese whose views differ from the government line.” Chinese government officials have doubled their efforts to fill their jails, investigate, watch, intimidate and house arrest human rights activists. Rep. Smith experienced this “crackdown” when his trip to China was disrupted when human rights lawyers were detained by Chinese police when they tried to meet with Rep. Smith.

Rep. Joe Pitts commended the passage of the resolution, stating: “I hope this resolution right before the President leaves for Bejing makes a strong statement. I urge the President to pressure Chinese officials to end their government’s human rights abuses – especially the appalling policy of forced abortions. Coercive abortion is a most horrific violation of the most basic human rights of families in China.”

The Press Secretary reported that President Bush met with five Chinese human rights activists at the White House this Tuesday. The President assured them that he would carry the message of freedom with him to Bejing when he attends the Olympic Games. The President stated that his trip to China gives him an opportunity to make the United States position clear – human rights and religious freedom should not be denied to anyone.

A video of speeches given by Chris Smith and Joe Pitts during the Committee debate can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/prolifeinformation

Emerging evidence suggests that China and India may not be the only countries where sex-selective abortion is commonly practiced.  In a video released today, Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute (PRI), argues that America also has a hidden and growing problem with sex-selective abortion, a problem that most pro-abortion and feminist groups refuse to address.

The United Nations has defined sex-selective abortion as the intentional killing of unborn females due to the preference for male offspring (also know as “son preference”).  Worldwide, sex selective abortions most commonly occur because of the low value associated with the birth of females who tend to be regarded as more of a financial burden to their families and as a result of various social and legal conventions (such as males carrying on the family name).  This “son preference” is one of the most evident manifestations of sex discrimination in many societies, undermining female equality and contributing to the elimination of many females’ very right to exist.

Currently, sex-selective abortion is widely practiced in Asia and other parts of the world, resulting in a statistically improbable ratio of baby boys to baby girls.  According to the United Nations, the practice has already claimed the lives of more than 100 million girls worldwide. Moreover, a recent study published by the National Academy of Sciences indicates that many American groups, particularly those of Asian descent, have the same skewed birthrates as found in their country of origin.  Apparently, many of the customs and practices that have led to these skewed birthrates in other countries are being imported into the United States and leading to the selective abortion of baby girls here.

Pro-abortion and feminist advocacy groups have largely ignored this problem, prioritizing their support for unregulated abortion-on-demand over addressing this growing and barbaric form of sex discrimination.  In fact, their silence on this issue is deafening and very telling as to their true priorities and allegiances.
Conversely, the American public and medical professionals have repeatedly condemned this deplorable practice.  In a March 2006 Zogby poll, 86% of Americans agreed that sex-selective abortions should be illegal.  Moreover, in February 2007, the Committee on Ethics of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated, in an ethics opinion, that sex-selective abortion is inappropriate for family planning purposes.

In response to this growing problem, several countries (including China and Great Britain) have enacted bans on sex-selective abortion.  Given the evidence released today, it is clear that we need to do the same and that pro-abortion and feminist groups should be confronted for their continued silence on this critical issue.
Visit the Population Research Institute’s website at www.pop.org