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This boy was almost aborted because the ultrasound said he was a girl. WRWF’s “Save a Girl” Campaign saved his life.
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An
administrator at a local hospital in rural China places a secret call
to a Women’s Rights Without Frontiers fieldworker. A woman’s ultrasound
shows a girl, he says. The family is known to practice gendercide, and
the mother is being pressured to abort.
One
of our fieldworkers visits and learns the husband’s family insists on
the abortion. To help the mother keep the child, we offer monthly
support for a year – part of our “Save a Girl” Campaign. She uses these
much-needed funds to push back against the pressure to abort the baby
because it’s a girl.
Then
comes the birth of a healthy baby . . . boy! The ultrasound was wrong.
In tears, the mother thanks us for saving her son, almost lost because
he was expected to be a girl.
Support our “Save a Girl” Campaign.
* * *
Today, October 11,
is International Day of the Girl Child. It was established by the UN
in 2011 “to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face
around the world.” It is a “girl’s right” not to be deleted from
existence just because she’s a girl. It is the “unique challenge” of
girls in China and India to emerge from their mothers’ wombs alive, so
that they may draw breath upon this earth and see the light of day.
For
most of us, hearing "it's a girl" is cause for enormous joy, happiness
and celebration. But in many countries, this announcement is a death
sentence. Experts estimate that up to 200 million women are missing in
the world today due to gendercide, mostly in China and India.
This
should not be a pro-choice or a pro-life issue. This is a human rights
issue. Gendercide is violence against women and girls. No one supports
the systematic elimination of females.
All
too often, gendercide is not a choice. There is a strong correlation
between sex-selective abortion and coercion. Crushing social, economic,
political and personal pressures in cultures with a strong son
preference trample women carrying girls. Women in these cultures hardly
select their daughters for abortion. They are forced.
In
China, the birth ratio of girls to boys is the most skewed in the
world: approximately 100 girls born for every 119 boys. Sons
traditionally carry on the family name, work the fields, and take care
of their parents in old age. A daughter joins her husband’s family at
marriage. There is a saying: “Raising a girl is like watering someone
else’s garden.” The One Child Policy exacerbates the underlying son
preference. When couples are restricted to a coercive low birth limit,
women often become the focus of intense pressure by their husband and
in-laws to ensure a boy.
Help us save lives in China.
* * *
Because
of systematic, sex-selective abortion there are an estimated 37 million
more males than females living in China today. The presence of these
“excess males” is the driving force behind human trafficking and sexual
slavery, not only within China but from surrounding nations as well.
Finally,
China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world.
According to the most recent U.S. State Department China Human Rights
Report, the number of female suicides has risen sharply in the past
several years, from 500 women per day to 590.
It
is a woman’s right to choose to give birth to her daughters. Together,
China and India comprise one third of the world’s population. That
one-third of the world’s women are deprived of their right to bear girls
is the biggest women’s rights abuse on earth. This violent
discrimination against women and girls deserves a passionate response
from groups that stand for women’s rights, whether on the right or on
the left.
These
problems are not confined to China and India. Female feticide happens
in the United States and in many countries all over the world.
Every
struggling mother deserves help to keep her daughter. Together, we can
end gendercide and sweep sex-selective abortion into the dung-heap of
history, where it belongs.
You can help make the difference between life and death for a baby in China!
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PO Box 54401 | San Jose, CA 951
