Sex-based violence against women and girls – violence perpetrated against females solely because they are females – is a sad reality in our world. To combat this injustice, the United Nations established a Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls in 1994. The mandate of the current Special Rapporteur, Reem Alsalem, is not only to identify common forms of violence against women and girls but also to investigate their causes and consequences.
Late this spring, Alsalem released a report titled Sex-based violence against women and girls: new frontiers and emerging issues. The report is global in scope. It points out cases of gender-based violence in countries like Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, and Sudan that are egregious to Western sensibilities. But Alsalem doesn’t give Western countries a free pass. Sex-based violence happens here too. The most frequently mentioned Western countries in the report are Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel.
Alsalem touches on many forms of sex-based violence in her report, but she criticizes what few United Nations reports have dared to mention before: sex-selective abortion.
While United Nations agencies aren’t known for pro-life views (and we have no idea where Alsalem stands on the issue of abortion generally), Alsalem decries sex-selective abortion as a form of violence against women.
“Prenatal sex-selective practices, including sex-selective abortion are a major form of sex-based violence. Sex-selective practices encompass ‘all practices that involve the direct or indirect elimination of girl children because they are female.’ Sex-selective practices are rooted in a culture of son preference and daughter aversion, linked to persistent socioeconomic conditions that lead to men and boys being perceived as economically and socially more valuable than females. As a result, ‘sex-selective practices represent one of the most direct and blatant forms of sex-based violence and discrimination, beginning at the earliest stages of life.’ According to United Nations estimates, as of 2020, 142.6 million females were ‘missing’ globally, in particular in Asia, as a direct result of sex-selective practices.”
First, 142.6 million people is a staggering figure. While sex-selective abortion might not be responsible for all of those “missing” women – post-birth abandonment and murder of girls are assuredly responsible too – it likely accounts for most of them. Each life lost, whether to an abortion or any other form of violence, is a tragedy.
Second, Alsalem recognizes that human life begins in the womb. Although not recognizing a pre-born girl as a person with all the attendant rights, she does recognize that sex-selective abortion is a form of violence and discrimination at the earliest stage of life. Life indeed does begin in the womb. A pre-born child isn’t simply part of a mother’s body. Rather, that child is in her earliest stage of life and deserves protection against violence and discrimination.
Third, the Special Rapporteur claims that sex-selective abortion represents “one of the most direct and blatant forms of sex-based violence.” And her report mentions a lot of other physical forms of sex-based violence – “femi-genocide,” femicide, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, rape, prostitution, pornography, abuse, and harassment just to name the most egregious ones. As diabolical as these other forms of sex-based violence are, most women in these circumstances have the opportunity to fight back or escape the violence in some way. Although they might not have a high chance of winning a physical fight or a legal battle, they at least have a fighting chance. Pre-born girls, though, have no chance. They are completely defenseless. They have nowhere to escape to. The one place that should be the safest and most nurturing in the world – her mother’s womb – could be the equivalent to a cell on death row. Sex-selective abortion is indeed a tragedy.
That’s why the report calls on governments to “enact and rigorously enforce laws prohibiting prenatal sex determination for non-medical purposes, sex-selective abortions and female infanticide. States should regulate the use of ultrasound and other diagnostic technologies through the mandatory reporting of all prenatal scans and their medical justifications. That ensures accountability, deters illegal practices and directly curbs the mechanisms enabling sex selection.” The Canadian federal government could implement this recommendation by banning sex-selective abortion in the Criminal Code. This is what Bill C-233 proposed in 2021. Alternatively, provincial ministries of health could require medical professionals not to disclose the sex of the child until late in pregnancy.
This form of sex-based violence happens in Canada. But it shouldn’t. We should implement the United Nations Special Rapporteur’s recommendations to stop these injustices.