Trash can girl babies
75Cover of Life magazine showing an 18 week old fetus
What's the big deal about having a girl?
Imagine you are pregnant and you are only allowed to have one child. It doesn't matter if you are very fertile, just the one child. In your culture, boys are valued and boys inherit from the grandparents. What would you do if you find out that the baby you are carrying is a girl? Would you want to go through with your pregnancy and forfeit any chance you might have of giving birth to a boy? Because of the Chinese government initiating a one child policy to curb population growth, thousands of young Chinese women are faced with this agonising decision each and every day. There are abortion clinics everywhere, cunningly disguised as 'Women's hospitals.' Abortion is big business in China, maybe one of the biggest local industries.
Imagine you are pregnant with your third child, and you are very poor and struggling to make ends meet. Your husband is working but not bringing home much money. Your other two children are beautiful little girls. In your culture, when your girls get married, you have to pay a dowry to the groom's family. This is quite expensive and you worry incessantly how you will be able to afford to pay two dowry's as you can't save any money. You don't even have enough now to buy food. You go for your 18 week ultrasound and find out that you are carrying a girl. If you give birth to the baby, you will have to pay three dowries! What are you going to do? Your husband and is family will be pressuring you to get rid of the baby. They need a boy to boost the family income as when he marries, he'll bring in a dowry. In India, especially in more rural areas, women are faced with this kind of decision every day.
What does an 18 week old foetus look like?
What is so human about an 18 week old foetus?
By 18 weeks you can definitely look at the foetus and see what it is going to be. No, it does not look anything like a tadpole! It weighs about 190g and is about 12 centimetres long from the top of the head to its bottom. The fetus is already able to stretch, kick, reach,roll around and suck its thumb. At 18 weeks you can easily tell a baby's sex. A girl foetus already has a vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes. A boy has easily recognisable boy bits. I think that makes the foetus pretty human, don't you? At 18 weeks, foetuses are too big to be aborted the same way they abort them at up to 12 weeks. When people are commiting female foeticide, they can only do this from 18 weeks on, when the foetus's sex is apparent.
An aborted foetus between 8-12 weeks
How do they abort foetuses 18 weeks and over?
For many young girls, abortion is a quick fix to an unpleasant problem. However, it definitely has psychological effects that are quite longterm. After all, they have just murdered a life, something that was living inside them. That has to be a traumatic experience. To murder a foetus just because it was a perfect girl, has to be even more traumatic, as then you have a partner, you are not a single girl who got careless. Normal abortions are over quickly and relatively easy. In China, when young unmarried girls find themselves pregnant, they just nip down to the nearby 'women's hospital' take a number and join a queue. It's a bit like a production line on a conveyer belt over there. Or rather, an unproduction ending the production line.
Up until 8 weeks of pregnancy, all a woman has to do to get rid of the foetus is to take some pills. This will cause a 'miscarriage.' However, at 8 weeks the mother does not yet know the sex of her unborn child. Up until 13 weeks, the foetus can be sucked out of the uterus with a vacuum aspirating machine. The foetus invariably breaks apart in this process. However, up until 13 weeks, you still can't tell the sex of the foetus. At 18 weeks the sex of the foetus can be determined. The foetus is too big to be removed the same way as in the other procedures mentioned. They tend to use the 'dilation and evacuation' method. This method, which is a partial-birth abortion method, is so inhumane it is frightenening. The mother is put under anaethetic, luckily or I am sure that she would go crazy if she saw what they were doing, and it was previoulsy believed to put the foetus to sleep as well. This has since been disproved. The little foetus, is definitely awake during the procedure. The cervix is injected to make it dilate. Then the good doctor, who is being paid hansomely by the desperate mothers, uses forceps to pull the foetus through the cervix by its legs until it's head is jammed at the opening, too big to pull through. The doctor then uses surgical scissors to stab a whole in the back of the babies soft skull, and then sucks out the brain, alllowing the head to collapse and be easily squashed to remove through the cervix. Incidentally, all of this while they baby was alive. Surely, they must experience horrifying pain before death?
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How can we stop this shocking practice?
The tragedy is, we can't. As long as China has a one-child policy and parents expect their sons to care for them when they get old, the practice will continue. As long as India fails to enforce the anti-dowry policy, the practice will continue. Until we change people's mindsets, the practice will continue. It doesn't matter that China has outlawed people finding out the sex of the baby when it is in utero. There is always a corrupt doctor who can be bribed. It doesn't matter if India has outlawed and made female foeticide illegal. There are always corrupt doctors who will do it for a price. In China, an average of 750 000 - 1 million female foetuses are aborted annually. In India, female foetuses about 500 000 are aborted annually. But they are not the only countries that do this. In South Korea, about 30 000 female foetuses are aborted annually. I really don't believe that all those women are doing it of their own free will. Society and their partners and family are putting pressure on them and coercing them to carry out this dastardly deed. In the meantime, doctors are milking it and raking in the benefits, and making it their speciality. I thought doctors were supposed to save lives, not take them. In the end, it's always money, that talks, isn't it?
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I was shocked at what I read when I researched the article. Have to say, up to 12 weeks, yeah still okay but I could never do it. But after that and those 18 week old foetuses aborted - no, that's just plain murder.
Hi cindyvine!
Yes, it is so sad; one of my Chinese friends told me people in Beijing drop off unwanted babies on the streets. Before those babies just die on the streets but I think now they are up for international adoptions.
I believe in most Countries other than west people prefer boys than girls & it's not only China's one child policy or India's dowry system. What's wrong in Korea, they just like boys too.
~ Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.~ Elizabeth Stone
~Ten fingers, Ten toes
She's laughter and teardrops So small and brand new,And amazingly angelic She's sent to bless you She's one special Baby The best of life's treasure And will grant and bless you Many hours of great pleasure. ~
Yeah, I think in many countries people are under the mistaken belief that boys are best as they;ll look after you when you get old. But, girls are capable of doing that as well. In the old days it used to be that boys would carry on the family name. But now, many girls kep their family names and don't change it when they marry
I don't believe that Dr's are exploiting abortion. Just because they make it their specialty does not mean they are in it for money.
That is like saying a plastic surgeon specializing in burn victims is only in it for the money. That isn't the case. Dr's specialize to fill niches within the business.
Well Ferreira, obviously you have never traveled to China and seen what big business abortion is. It is actually promoted as a means of contraception and the multitudes of abortion hospitals make a killing - very big business. Young women don't want to take the pill as they are told it makes them fat, men aren't too keen on condoms, so every day special buses from the abortion clinics pick up busloads of young girls from the universities and take them to get abortions. It really is big business here and is all about the money.
When abortion was banned in South Africa and doctors performed backstreet abortions for huge fees after hours, they had well-paid regular doctor jobs, you can't tell me they weren't doing it for the money!
Life is precious. As a mom, I know first hand. I appreciate my children, am thankful and pray that others would know, that Life begins at conception. Gods good!
I agree, Rickyracer! We need to appreciate our children, so that they can have a good foundation to go out into the world and bring about change.
i think different circumstances are acceptable for abortion. If people didnt have babies they didnt want to raise all the time then we probably wouldnt have *as many* psyco killers and messed up individuals. But if someone is raped and becomes pregnant then they should DEFINETLY have an abortion. If they do it right away.. its just as much killing a baby as men wasting sperm when masterbating. no offense.
I agree, but to have a pregnancy terminated just because the foetus is a girl, is not acceptable in my book.
Abortion is murder no matter how you look at. It's a life that's being taken without that life having any say in the matter. It's awful what is going on in China and India but it's awful too what is going on in the United States. Since Roe v. Wade, there have been almost 50 million babies aborted, which is more than in China and most of them because of inconvience, lack of responsibility and/or the baby will have some sort of birth defect. ALL unexcusable in my book.
This is so tragic. Thank you for bringing this injustice to our attention!
Cari, I agree with you, although I understand that there are times when abortion is best. For instance, if the mother has Down's Syndrome.
Theffin, it is a huge tragedy
Very tragic cindyvine - and I'm ashamed of the fact that it happens in India - right across the many communities and classes. So much so that we are a skewed population today - far more men than women. Changing mindsets is so tough - for the masses, we probably need the carrot-and-stick approach to turn this thing around!
What's even sadder - in India at least, today, daughters look after their old parents much better than their sons!
Shalini, you are right, it is the mindset we have to change
Down's syndrome? Please explain. I do not understand how that is a problem.
Thetfin, I taught at a school for children with special needs, and one of the girls with Down's Syndrome fell pregnant, the father also had special needs. Parents decided that abortion would be the best option as the children were unable to care for themselves and in no way would be able to care for a baby.
I completely understand that they would be unable to care for the child but that doesn't mean that nobody should take care of it. Perhaps someting like foster care would be the solution. I'm not entirely sure how capable people with down's syndrome are to give birth. Birth appears pretty straight forward, but that's coming from a person who's never experienced childbirth or down's sydrome. Would they require a c-section? I guess that what I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't just sentence somebody to death because we feel they inconvenience society. We should do our best to ensure the best interests of all parties involved are being respected. On the one hand I agree that it would be nice if people weren't put in such difficult situations, but on the other hand I believe that any free society must protect life as the most important right of all. But perhaps there is some kind of life threatening complication that people with down's syndrome experience when they get pregnant that I'm not aware of. I dunno. I'm just trying to figure out a just solution to an issue that I have never considered before. Thanks for your insights.
God Bless.
amazing hub..very powerfuly written. many articles on this subjest sound cliche..but your words and approach have hit the problem right to the core. loved reading you.
Here's a link to a poem and short story on female infanticide. It has its material drawn from female infanticide practices in north indian villages. There were times when contraception and abortion were not available and
Girl child was burried or drowned to death...
Tina, thanks for link to the poem!
i read that hub and when i saw that little aborted foetus, i started to cry.. how could someone take the life of something so precious?! Such a good hub..
Thanks Cisco, people need to be aware that abortion is taking a life and it doesn't just look like a splodge
Thank you for posting this, I appreciate the truth being told.
Shelley, many people don't want to know the truth
I don't know guys but I'd rather haven't found this site. It's so sad.
Very sad CBR, but we do need to be aware that it is happening!
Oh, my God! The photo is incredible! I am seeing for the first time a 18 weeks foetus.
A very, very sad ...reality. One positive vote from me.
Howcurecancer, it is incredible what technology can do these days.
Celebritys4africa, abortion is a sad reality happening all around the world every day of the year.
Sometimes when I cannot sleep at night, later I find a reason for it. I've been up all night, playing games, reading, going site to site, I even took a sleeping pill, and it did not work! When this happens to me it's for a reason. Tonight(this morning) I found the reason. Had I fell asleep, I would not have wandered around and found his hub.
I've been researching as far back as Mao Zedong deciding to be a Marxist, reading some of the Marxist Manifisto to understand WHY this is going on in China, and if I knew history, maybe somehow I could find a way to change THE FUTURE. Gathering information on how it got started so I could make a WELL INFORMED HUB!
I realize that seems like a lot of work for a hub, but it's not a lot of work for a LIFE.
I was reading someone's hub who put a follow on me. The first girl (Realhousewife) has 3 girls. I had no idea either of them held these types of values! (I have since dropped them) But if you look at the posts you can see they DO.
Of course they will deny it, as I've caught her in several lies so I stopped following her, and dropped communications. Then I began my research so I could say to her.
"LOOK AT YOUR THREE DAUGHTERS, CHOOSE WHICH ONE WILL LIVE, WHICH ONE SHOULD DIE - CHOOSE!!"
Having 3 girls, and then saying WE should have that policy, as the girl who wrote the hub says "3, 4, 18" that's a problem! So in fact, she is saying her "friend" had one child too many. And the MOTHER AGREES WITH HER!
Farther down you see Motown2Chitown, a Catholic who I just stopped my follow on when I realized their profile pages promote each other as "great writers" most of the people you see posting, evade the "overpopulation" issue, which there is NOT if you google earth and see how much uninhabited land there is. This person lives in a college town, in a HUGE state of Texas. I'd like to see her use the same amount of water as the first poster to bathe in! And less of it, especially after each of them decide which child should live or die.
THESE ARE AMERICANS, who do things, then think others are horrible for it! I don't understand them at all!
If I go show them your hub, again "I'll be the bad guy" and they will vote me down, and draw others away as she is a master manipulator!
Your hub gave me a push to get busy and make my hub on this topic, and with the knowledge I gained of China's one child policy is great ammo against their values, but I had NO IDEA this was going on in India as well! Now that I am enlightened on that I will mention it.
If you'd like to see the hub and any of your readers post in behalf of the children, and tell them that it's wrong thinking you'd be helping to get the ball rolling to stop China and India as well as Korea.
We are trying to save lives, and preventing a pregnancy is one thing aborting it is another.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Hot-and-Dry-in-Texas-Droug
I brought this to the attention of a fellow hubber who likes to write about pretty girls and actresses! While I was doing my research, I told him about this and said please do one on Chinese women and how lucky they are to be alive! And he did, if you'd like to see that hub and give it praise because hubpages actually stopped his ads for using a certain word, if you read it, you'll realize which word. After he wrote them, they reinstated his ad's, but it is a sad time when it comes to that. I'm surprised they let your hub stay up as long as it has. I'm glad though, because I will link to it as well as adding in what I already have in my hub that is unfinished and saved, so I can post it with very clear information.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Most-Beautiful-Chinese PLEASE VOTE UP, AS HE GOES INTO DETAIL ON WHY WE HAVE THESE CHINESE WOMEN TODAY!! THANKS, sorry for the long post, I wanted to be clear that this is a subject I do NOT plan on giving up on!
-Kathy
Kathy, good luck on your mission to help Chinese women and learn more about Mao.
The truth is extremely disturbing. Not to mention the health issues that women can face physically, I don't believe women are educated nearly enough on the cons of this subject. Thanks for writing this. I have always wanted to advocate to save the unborn, but have never found the courage to do so.
Sfrentz it is disturbing and something we definitely need to educate women about.
that looks so scary i mean like i have hard of a baby that fits in the bome of yuor hand but that baby live but this babies head was not even atached and you could see the ribs so easyly.
Thanks for writing this. We are trying to save lives, and preventing a pregnancy is one thing aborting it is another. Many people don't want to know the truth.
Although it's hard to write about, people have to know. Thanks for commenting Gunka.
Nayberry 3 years ago
OOH! You have really hit the nail on the head! Abortion is an on-going debate in this country, and there are so many young girls that think that it is the solution. I watched a talk show once showing a young woman in her late twenties who had an abortion, and as she sat there telling the story of the pain she felt because of it, I thought what a shame it was. She, having had children later on in life, realized the true impact of what she'd done, and the results were devastating to her. This is something we all need to think about.
Thanks for this hub. It is a wake-up call in a time when these types of messages are needed.
Tootles!!!