Arizona and the War on Baby Girls

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in my weekly column, the global war against baby girls is not just a phenomenon found abroad. In the United States sex ratios at birth for the Chinese-American population, the Japanese-American population, and the Filipino-American population, and for the Asian-American population as a whole are out of kilter.

Few government officials even admit there is a problem, much less attempt to protect these vulnerable children. But Arizona is taking a stand :

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill that makes the state the first in the nation to outlaw abortions performed on the basis of the race or gender of the fetus.

The move comes as anti-abortion groups across the nation try to seize on gains made by political conservatives during the November elections, seeking enactment of new state laws to further restrict abortions.

Under the new Arizona statute, doctors and other medical professionals would face felony charges if they could be shown to have performed abortions for the purposes of helping parents select their offspring on the basis of gender or race.

The women having such abortions would not be penalized.

State legislators have said no such law exists anywhere else in the nation.

The practical effect will likely be negligible—few parents will openly admit that they are aborting a child because of its gender or race—but it’s a symbolic victory for the pro-life cause. Good for Arizona.

Oh, and you can probably guess who would be against such a law: The organization that was founded by the minority-despising eugenicist Margaret Sanger .

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