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Abortion Asia Sex-selection abortion Women's health

Sex-selective abortions American style

The San Francisco Chronicle has an op-ed about sex-selective abortion arguing that such abortions are a violation of human rights. (The author does not attempt explain what distinguishes sex-selective abortion from all abortions in terms of human rights.) The column relies in part on an April 2011 article appearing in the journal, Social Science and Medicine. In “There is such a thing as too many daughters, but not too many sons”: A qualitative study of son preference and fetal sex selection among Indian immigrants in the United States, a team of scholars from UC-San Francisco Medical School interviewed 65 immigrant Indian women in the United States who had pursued fetal sex selection on the East and West coasts of the United States between September 2004 and December 2009. They found that the women often expressed preferences for sons, while some were victims of family coercion.

The lead author, Sunita Puri, previously published The ethics of sex selection: a comparison of the attitudes and experiences of primary care physicians and physician providers of clinical sex selection services.

Teresa Collett

Teresa Stanton Collett is a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches bioethics, property law, and constitutional law. A nationally prominent speaker and scholar, she is active in attempts to rebuild the Culture of Life and protect the institutions of marriage and family. She often represents groups of state legislators, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Christian Medical and Dental Association in appellate case related to medical-legal matters. She represented the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota before the U.S. Supreme Court as amici curiae regarding the effectiveness of those states’ parental involvement laws. She has served as special attorney general for Oklahoma and Kansas related to legislation designed to protect the well-being of minors and unborn children. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has testified before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittees on the Constitution, as well as numerous legislative committees in the states.